[EL] Referendum Nullification

Mon Jan 18 12:55:03 PST 2016

What is the case number in the 8th circuit?
 Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147

      From: "Reuben, Richard C." <ReubenR at missouri.edu>
 To: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>; "law-election at UCI.edu" <law-election at uci.edu> 
 Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 12:40 PM
 Subject: [EL] Referendum Nullification

 #yiv7574662803 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}Hi all,

I am writing to solicit interest in an amicus brief to 8th Circuit on the nullification of referendums.

I have written about this case once before, but in a nutshell:  The Columbia (Mo.) City Council passed an ordinance approving a downtown construction project. Citizens groups collected the necessary signatures for a referendum, and while the city clerk was certifying the signatures, the City Council passed another virtually identical ordinance authorizing the development.  The citizens groups gathered more signatures for a second referendum on the second ordinance, but the City Manager issued the permits anyway, thus allowing the second ordinance to effectively nullify the first referendum. 

A federal trial judge granted the City's MSJ, and the case is going to the 8th Circuit on the question of whether a legislative body can nullify a referendum merely by substantially reenacting the ordinance that is subject to the referendum.

There is nothing particularly unique about the state or local referendum provisions at issue.  If allowed to stand, we believe this federal district court decision will give a green light to referendum nullification by reenactment in other jurisdictions.  If followed by other courts, we believe it will effectively vitiate the use of the referendum petition as a check on elected government.

This is a pro bono effort. We are not looking for financial support at this point. Rather we are looking for legal scholars, civil rights groups and others who would be willing to help us by signing an amicus petition basically telling the 8th Circuit this really is an important issue from a national perspective. 

Please contact me directly if you might be interested in helping on this. My email address is  ReubenR at missouri.edu, and phone number is 573-884-5204. Naturally, I am willing to answer any questions, and provide you with the briefs, lower court opinion, and whatever else you might need to more fully understand the case and its significance.

Thanks for your consideration.

Richard C. Reuben
James Lewis Parks Professor of Law and Journalism
University of Missouri School of Law
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: 573-884-5204
Fax: 573-882-3343

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Rick Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 1:16 PM
To: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/18/16

Sen. Sanders Ties Health Care Reform to Campaign Finance Reform
Posted on January 18, 2016 11:13 am by Rick HasenFrom last night’s debate: (video)
SANDERS:…You know what it all comes down to?Do you know why we can’t do what every other country — major country on Earth is doing? It’s because we have a campaign finance system that is corrupt, we have super PACs, we have the pharmaceutical industry pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaign contributions and lobbying, and the private insurance companies as well.What this is really about is not the rational way to go forward — it’s Medicare for all — it is whether we have the guts to stand up to the private insurance companies and all of their money, and the pharmaceutical industry. That’s what this debate should be about.(APPLAUSE)CLINTON: Well, as someone who — as someone who has a little bit of experience standing up to the health insurance industry, that spent, you know…(APPLAUSE)… many, many millions of dollars attacking me, and probably will so again, because of what I believe we can do building on the Affordable Care Act, I think it’s important to point out that there are a lot of reasons we have the health care system we have today.I know how much money influences the political decision-making. That’s why I’m for huge campaign finance reform. However, we started a system that had private health insurance.
Posted in campaign finance, campaigns
“Can Republicans Embrace Campaign-Finance Reform?”
Posted on January 18, 2016 11:01 am by Rick HasenTAP sits down with Nick Penniman of Republican reform group Issue One.Posted in campaign finance
“Case Could Widen Free-Speech Gap Between Unions and Corporations”
Posted on January 18, 2016 10:57 am by Rick HasenAdam Liptak NYT Sidebar column:
The Citizens United decision, which amplified the role of money in American politics, also promised something like a level playing field. Both corporations and unions, it said, could spend what they liked to support their favored candidates.But last week’s arguments in a major challenge to public unions illuminated a gap in the Supreme Court’s treatment of capital and labor. The court has long allowed workers to refuse to finance unions’ political activities. But shareholders have no comparable right to refuse to pay for corporate political speech.At the arguments in the case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, No. 14-915, the justices seemed poised to widen that gap by allowing government workers to refuse to support unions’ collective bargaining activities, too.
Posted in campaign finance, Supreme Court
“Super PACs get free pass to hide donors”
Posted on January 18, 2016 10:44 am by Rick HasenCPI:
On Tuesday, a pro-Hillary Clintonsuper PAC sent campaign regulators a seemingly perfunctory letter, all of 30 words long.“This letter serves to officially notify the Federal Election Commission that Priorities USA Action will file its reports on a monthly basis to the Commission as of January 1, 2016,” it read.Sounds harmless enough. But that little note — and more just like it from other super PACs — allows top presidential bankrollers to remain hidden as the campaign grows white hot.That’s because, thanks to a quirk in federal law, such letters give those super PACs the power to withhold their January donors’ names until well after the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries are conducted next month.
Posted in campaign finance, campaigns
Tillman Relies on Democracy Canon to Support Interpretation that Sen. Cruz Eligible for President as Natural Born Citizen
Posted on January 18, 2016 10:38 am by Rick HasenI’d been thinking the same thing.My work on the Democracy Canon in the Stanford Law Review is here.Posted in campaigns
“GOP 2016: Emails Show Carly Fiorina Super PAC Helps Out At Campaign Events, Despite Coordination Rules”
Posted on January 17, 2016 3:25 pm by Rick HasenThe IBT reports.Posted in campaign finance
“Casting ballots twice is not a big problem, voting advocates say, but some want action”
Posted on January 17, 2016 3:14 pm by Rick HasenThe Sun Sentinel reports.Posted in election administration, The Voting Wars
“The Koch brothers’ impact on the American political system”
Posted on January 17, 2016 3:07 pm by Rick HasenTom Hamburger reviews Jane Mayer’s Dark Money.Posted in campaign finance, campaigns
“Trump open to campaign finance reform”
Posted on January 17, 2016 3:05 pm by Rick HasenThe Hill:
Pointing to the effects of “horrible” super-PACs, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday said America needs to come up with a solution to keep big money out of politics.“Well, I think you need it, because I think PACs are a horrible thing,” Trump said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked if he would pursue campaign finance reform.The billionaire businessman, who said he is self-financing his campaign, said the wall separating super-PACs and candidates running for public office is illusory.
“First of all, everyone’s dealing with their PAC. You know, it’s supposed to be like this secret thing. They’re all dealing with it,” he saiid
Thus sayeth the billionaire who still is relying more on donations from others than his own money.Posted in campaign finance, campaigns, Plutocrats United
“Amount of lobbying done in the shadows is growing, California ethics officials agree”
Posted on January 17, 2016 3:03 pm by Rick HasenLAT:
The dire warning arrived in a mailer to thousands of state voters from a group called the California Drivers Alliance.“Gasoline restrictions … will hurt families in LA,” the geographically targeted mailer warned, alerting the recipient that legislation being debated in Sacramento would “take away our ability to drive to work in our own cars.”The group’s name sounded as if it was a grass-roots organization of motorists, but it was actually the creation of the Western States Petroleum Assn. as part of its successful lobbying effort last year to kill a proposal that would have reduced gas consumption by 50% in California by the year 2030.When the leading oil industry association in the state publicly filed a required disclosure of its lobbying effort, there was no mention of its funding of the mail campaign and a related YouTube video.
Posted in campaign finance, lobbying
Legal Theory Blog Recommends Plutocrats United
Posted on January 17, 2016 2:57 pm by Rick HasenThanks Larry! Posted in Plutocrats United
“Prominent Jeb Bush Donor Questions Super PAC Strategist Over Negative Marco Rubio Ads”
Posted on January 16, 2016 12:44 pm by Rick HasenNYT:
A prominent donor to Jeb Bush pressed the chief strategist of the “super PAC” supporting Mr. Bush over the group’s negative ads about Senator Marco Rubio during a closed-door meeting in Manhattan on Friday, according to three people familiar with the encounter.The exchange took place between Barry Volpert of the private equity firm Crestview Partners and the strategist Mike Murphy at a meeting of about 35 donors at the Palace Hotel in Midtown, according to one attendee.
Posted in campaign finance, campaigns
-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
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949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
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