[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/16/16

Rick Hasen rhasen at law.uci.edu
Wed Mar 16 08:45:25 PDT 2016


    Should Progressives Worry that Judge Garland Voted to Help Create
    Super PACs? <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80929>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 8:38 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80929>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Judge Merrick Garland, now nominated by President Obama to serve on the 
Supreme Court, was on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC 
Circuit when it consideredSpeechNow v. FEC 
<http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/speechnow_ac_opinion.pdf>, the case 
that helped create Super PACs.  Judge Garland joined a unanimous opinion 
written by Judge Sentelle. I do not believe that Judge Garland’s vote in 
SpeechNow indicates how he would vote if, for example, he faced a case 
asking the Court to overturn /Citizens United/.  It doesn’t say anything 
one way or the other. Let me explain.

In /Buckley v. Valeo/, the Supreme Court held that individuals have a 
constitutional right to spend money independently in elections. But the 
court upheld contribution limits, and in a later case (CMA v. FEC), the 
court upheld limits on contributions to political action committees by 
individuals (set at $5,000).  Before /Citizens United/, there was a 
fierce debate in the academic community as to whether CMA stood for the 
proposition that it was constitutional to limit contributions to PACs 
which make only independent expenditures. The issue was not resolved.

In /Citizens United/, the Supreme Court held that not only individuals, 
but also corporations (and presumably labor unions) have a 
constitutional right to spend money independently in elections. But (as 
I explain inthis Michigan Law Review 
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1620576>article), 
Citizens United did much more than just include that holding. It also 
narrowed the definition of corruption and rejected other arguments that 
the Court had before relied upon to uphold campaign finance laws.

When /SpeechNow/got to the DC Circuit, the Supreme Court’s signal was 
clear:the logic was that iif independent spending can never corrupt (as 
the Supreme Court held in Citizens United), then contributions to fund 
independent spending by a PAC cannot corrupt. The /Citizens United/case 
is cited 26 times(!) in /SpeechNow/.  Look, if I were a judge on the DC 
Circuit having to follow Supreme Court precedent I would have voted the 
same way in /SpeechNow/, despite the fact that I think /Citizens 
United/(and /Buckley/) should be overruled. That’s not the job of a 
Circuit Court judge.

So I don’t think we can read anything into Judge 
Garland’s/SpeechNow/vote as to how he would rule to overturn /Citizens 
United/or in other campaign finance cases. In coming days I will look at 
other opinions by Judge Garland in the election law and see what that 
might say about him as a Justice (I have been doing this since the 
nomination of John Roberts).  So the jury is still out on this question.

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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,Supreme 
Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


    “Democrats push SEC nominees on corporate political spending”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80927>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 8:14 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80927>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Reuters reports. 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-sec-idUSKCN0WH2UC>

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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


    “Traffic accident leads to voting snarl”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80925>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 8:03 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80925>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cincinnati Enquirer 
<http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/03/15/ohio-vote-critical-kasich-trump/81646526/>:

    Ohio’s primary went smoothly most of the day Tuesday, but a late
    wrinkle in southwest Ohio caused some last-minute chaos.

    A federal judge ordered polls in four southwest Ohio counties to
    stay open an extra hour because of a major traffic accident on
    I-275, which shut down the highway and stranded thousands of
    motorists for much of the early evening. The problem, elections
    officials say, is that the order came after polls already had closed
    at 7:30 p.m.

    U,S. District Judge Susan Dlott called Secretary of State Jon Husted
    about her concerns shortly after 7:30 and then issued her written
    order to keep the polls open at 8:13 p.m….

    Overall, voting went smoothly throughout most of the day, though
    voters at a Cleveland polling place got a scare when a man pulled a
    gun from his backpack after arguing with a fellow poll worker. The
    man ran away and no one was hurt. He was arrested a short time later.

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Posted inelection administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


    “A fair way to choose a Republican nominee”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80923>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 7:59 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80923>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ramesh Ponnuru 
<https://www.aei.org/publication/a-fair-way-to-choose-a-republican-nominee/>:

    But the rules in the Republican primaries, as we are now seeing, are
    not ideally designed to create consensus. Trump hasn’t won a
    majority in any contest so far — and he could in theory keep failing
    to win majorities and still come to the convention with a delegate
    lead. If he had a majority of the delegates, even his fiercest
    opponents within the Republican Party would have to concede that he
    had won fair and square. Republican opposition to his nomination
    would fade, too, if he had a big plurality built by a lot of state
    majorities.

    Different rules, as Francis Barryhas written
    <http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-03-09/the-delegate-quirk-that-enabled-trump-s-rise>,
    could make it more likely that in the future party nominations will
    go to candidates with majority support. States could, for example,
    hold runoff elections between the top two candidates in a primary.
    Or they could hold “instant runoffs.” Take a race with three
    candidates. Voters could rank those candidates. If none of them got
    51 percent of voters to say he was their first choice, the candidate
    with the fewest votes would be eliminated. Then his voters would be
    reallocated to their second-choice candidate. The winner would then
    be preferred by the majority.

    It’s not too late to apply some version of this idea to the choice
    of a Republican nominee. Republicans could change the rules of their
    convention to permit some kind of preferential ballot. The rule
    change would have to be proposed in advance, so that members of the
    convention’s rules committee have time to consider it before voting
    on it during the week before all the delegates arrive in Cleveland.
    Then, if it passes the committee, a majority of delegates would have
    to vote for it too.

    When it came time for the delegates to vote on the presidential
    nomination, delegates would rank their candidates — with pledged
    delegates putting the candidates to whom they are pledged at the top
    of their lists. It would probably also be necessary—to reduce the
    likelihood of accusations of dirty tricks — for each delegate to
    make his or her rank orderings public immediately after the vote.

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Posted inalternative voting systems 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>,political parties 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,primaries 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>


    Richard Winger: Not Too Late for Third Party Bid to Challenge Trump
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80921>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 7:56 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80921>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Richard writes:

    Your blog pos <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80910>t says you can’t
    believe it isn’t too late for conservatives to launch an independent
    campaign for president.
    John Anderson didn’t start petitioning as an independent until April
    24, 1980, and he got on in all states.  And the laws are better now
    than they were in 1980.
    Robert La Follette didn’t start until July 4, 1924, and he got on in
    all states except Louisiana.  And the Louisiana problem was not
    related to the deadline.
    Strom Thurmond didn’t decide to run as the Dixiecrat presidential
    candidate until mid-July 1948, after the Dem national convention put
    a civil rights plank in the platform.  And he got on the ballot in
    all the southern states, which is all he cared about.
    Ross  Perot didn’t start in 1992 until mid-March and he got on in
    all ballots.
    In 2000, the US State Department formally condemned Azerbaijan’s new
    ballot access law, which said a new party had to register at least
    six months before the election in order to participate.
    Currently, all state deadlines are in June, July, August, and
    September, except Texas is in May.  Four states are in June, but
    their deadlines are suspect under Anderson v Celebrezze.  Five
    states have had June deadlines invalidated for being too early: 
    Nevada, Arizona, South Dakota, Kansas, and Alaska.  The Arizona
    decision is Nader v Brewer, a 9th circuit reported opinion.

    Also the conservatives might work with the Constitution Party, which
    is already on the ballot in 16 states.

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Posted inballot access <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>,third 
parties <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>


    “Campaign Finance Laws, Policy Outcomes, and Political Equality in
    the American States” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80919>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 7:47 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80919>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Patrick Flavin <http://prq.sagepub.com/content/68/1/77.abstract>in 
Political Research Quarterly:

    Laws that regulate the financing of campaigns are one attempt to
    attenuate the role of money in politics and promote more egalitarian
    policy outcomes. Do states with stricter campaign finance
    regulations represent citizens’ interests more equally? Using data
    on state spending priorities from 1977 to 2008, this article finds
    that states with stricter campaign finance laws devote a larger
    proportion of their annual budget to public welfare spending in
    general and to cash assistance programs in particular. In contrast,
    there is no relationship between the strictness of campaign finance
    laws and spending decisions for non-redistributive policy areas. I
    also investigate possible causal mechanisms and uncover evidence
    that stricter campaign finance laws alter incentives for candidates
    to respond to wealthy constituents by lessening the proportion of
    contributions that originate from business interests. These results
    suggest that laws that regulate the financing of political campaigns
    can play an important role in promoting the interests of
    disadvantaged citizens and enhancing political equality.

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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


    Trump Threatens Violence at Republican Convention
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80917>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 7:42 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80917>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Holy cow! From Greg Sargent: 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/03/16/donald-trump-just-threatened-more-violence-only-this-time-its-directed-at-the-gop/?postshare=5491458137838181&tid=ss_tw>

    But no sooner had this chatter started, then Trumpdropped another
    bomb, by suggesting
    <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/16/trump-youd-have-riots-if-contested-convention-results-in-a-different-nominee/>this
    morning on CNN that if he finishes with the most delegates, and the
    nomination goes to someone else, that violence could result:

    Trump said Wednesday that a contested GOP convention could be a
    disaster if he goes to Cleveland a few delegates shy of 1,237 — and
    doesn’t leave as the party’s nominee.

    “I think you’d have riots,” Trump said on CNN.

    Noting that he’s “representing many millions of people,” he told
    Chris Cuomo: “If you disenfranchise those people, and you say, ‘I’m
    sorry, you’re 100 votes short’…I think you’d have problems like
    you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen.”

    It’s hard to say whether this is intended as a threat or a
    prediction. But the unsettling fact of the matter is that there is
    no particular reason to rule out the former — that it was indeed
    intended as a tacit threat, as least of a certain kind. Trump has
    been playing a clever little game where he hints at the possibility
    of violence while stopping short of explicitly threatening it — yet
    he also doesn’t denounce such an outcome as unacceptable, so his
    hints/effectively function/as a threat.

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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


    Merrick Garland as Obama Compromise #SCOTUS Nominee, But Not (Only)
    Because of His Moderate Politics <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80915>

Posted onMarch 16, 2016 7:16 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80915>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

In the moments after Justice Scalia’s death, my first thoughts (as 
reflectedin this blog post <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=79915>) was 
that the President could well nominate Merrick Garland to fill Justice 
Scalia’s spot on the Court.  I wrote: “This is a highly polarized time, 
and strong conservatives will fight VERY hard to have Republicans block 
a liberal appointment to the Court. So the Obama administration faces 
something of a choice. Nominate a hard-core liberal who could be 
filibustered by a Republican Senate, or nominate someone more moderate 
(Judge Garland?) who could PERHAPS get confirmed if enough Republicans 
would be willing to go along.”

Garland is indeed a moderate, someone who will not excite the Democratic 
base the way other nominations would.  But the same could be said for 
Sri Srinivasan, who seemed to havethe inside track 
<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/709918292102656000> for the 
nomination until moments before the Garland news leaked.  While Garland 
and Srinivasan may differ slightly on ideology, it is not enough to sway 
Obama to choose one over the other.

So what explains Garland over Srinivasan? One possibility, as I 
suggested on Twitter last night, is that Srinivasan did not want to be 
nominated, to be the “pinata” with less than even odds of being 
confirmed.  He’d rather save himself for the next Democratic president. 
  That’s certainly one possibility.

The other is that Garland was chosen because he is significantly older 
(63 vs 49).  I have suggested (in the last chapter of Plutocrats United) 
that one way to compromise on SCOTUS nominees is an 18 year term limit. 
  Appointing someone who is 63 moves in that direction. It gives the 
President a win, but one which as a matter of probability and actuary 
tables won’t be on the Court as long.  It is a way for Obama to say that 
he could have reached for greater power over SCOTUS, but compromised.

In short, Garland’s age, which may make some liberals oppose his 
nomination, may be precisely what is attractive to the President who 
actually wants to appoint someone to #SCOTUS, and not just put up the 
human pinata.

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Posted inSupreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


    Ohio’s Confusing Republican Ballot <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80913>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 4:07 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80913>byDan Tokaji 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Lots of Republicans voting in today’s Ohio primary are confused, and 
understandably so. The Republican presidential candidates’ names are 
listed twice onthe ballot 
<http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2015/Dir2015-42-republican.pdf>, 
once under the heading “For Delegates-at-Large and Alternates-at-Large” 
and again under “For District Delegates and District Alternates.” If 
this weren’t enough, different candidates’ names appear under the first 
and second contests on some Ohio ballots. Mike Huckabee and/or Rick 
Santorum, both of whom have withdrawn, will appear on the “District 
Delegates” contest in some congressional districts but not others (see 
p. 7 ofthis directive 
<http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2015/Dir2015-42.pdf>).

What makes this a real head-scratcher is that the state’s Republican 
primary is winner-take-all, with the highest vote-getter gettingall of 
Ohio’s 66 delegates <http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/OH-R>. The 
Secretary of State’s office will reportedly release vote totals for both 
the “Delegates-at-Large” and “District Delegates” contests, but thestate 
party says 
<http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/04/ohios-gop-primary-ballot-confusion/81323608/>that 
it plans to consider only the at-large delegate vote in determining who 
gets Ohio’s delegates. And the “District Delegates” contest will appear 
at the top of page on at least some ballots (likethis one 
<https://vote.franklincountyohio.gov/assets/ballots/R_0953.PDF>), with 
the “Delegates-at-Large” contest – the one that matters – further down 
on the left side.  This problem is reminiscent of problematic ballot 
formats in past elections, like Florida’s 2006 election for the 13th 
Congressional District, California’s 2003 recall election, and even the 
infamous butterfly ballot in Florida’s 2000 presidential election. It’s 
possible that some voters will inadvertently fail to cast a vote that 
counts.

So what’s going on here? Why are the Republican presidential candidates 
listed twice?  Could this confusing ballot have been avoided?  It’s 
pretty clear that it could have been, though figuring out how this 
happened – and who’s responsible– is a bit more complicated.

Theexplanation that’s been offered 
<http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2016/03/youre_not_seeing_double_gop_pr.html>is 
that the double-listing of the Republican candidates is a relic from the 
proportional system used in past elections, which allowed candidates to 
win delegates at the congressional district level even if they lost 
statewide.  Last year, Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted 
a bill, signed by Governor Kasich, which moved the state primary date 
back to March 15.  That allowed for the state’s Republican delegates to 
be allocated on a winner-take-all basis pursuant to national Republican 
Party rules, a change perceived as helpful to Governor Kasich’s campaign 
given the likelihood that he would win his home state.

The 2015 legislation (HB 153 
<https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA131-HB-153>) 
changed the primary date, the story goes, but didn’t change the law on 
the ballot language.  That’s true enough, but it doesn’t completely 
explain the double-listing of candidates.  After all,the Democratic 
primary ballot 
<https://vote.franklincountyohio.gov/assets/ballots/D_0953.PDF>lists the 
candidates only once, even though therelevant 
<http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3513.12v1>statutes 
<http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3513.151v1>don’t differentiate between the 
two major parties.  Something else must be going on here.

The key provision appears to beOhio Revised Code 3513.151 
<http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3513.151v1>. Subsection (B) addresses 
at-large delegates, while subsection (C) addresses district delegates.   
The latter subsection provides:

The state central committee of each major political party, through its 
chairperson, not later than ninety days prior to the date of the 
presidential primary election, shall file with the secretary of state a 
statement that stipulates, in accordance with rules adopted by each 
state central committee at a meeting open to all members of the 
committee’s party, whether or not the names of candidates for district 
delegate and district alternate to the national convention of that 
chairperson’s party are to be printed on the ballot. The secretary of 
state shall prescribe the form of the ballot for the election of 
district delegates and district alternates of each political party in 
accordance with such statement. If the state central committee of a 
political party fails to so provide such statement, the secretary of 
state shall prescribe a form of ballot on which the names of candidates 
for delegate and alternate to such national convention do not appear on 
the ballot.

The “names of candidates” referred to above are the convention delegate 
candidates, not the presidential candidates. Presumably, the state 
Republican and Democratic parties both filed the statements contemplated 
by this statute, though I’ve yet found them.  At any rate the Ohio 
Secretary of State issuedthis directive 
<http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2015/Dir2015-42.pdf>(2015-42) 
at the end of last year, which prescribes the form of both theRepublican 
<http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2015/Dir2015-42-republican.pdf>andDemocratic 
<http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2015/Dir2015-42-democratic.pdf>ballots. 
  Neither lists the delegates’ names and, again, only the Republican 
ballot double-lists the candidates.

It’s true that the major parties allocate their Ohio delegates 
differently – Democrats doing so proportionally and Republicans on a 
winner-take-all basis – but that doesn’t explain the different ballot 
formats, especially since both parties have some at-large and some 
district delegates. Though I’m not certain, I suspect that differences 
in the parties’ statements to the Secretary of State explains why the 
presidential candidates are listed twice on the Republican ballot but 
only once on the Democratic ballot.  (If anyone has information on this, 
pleaseemail me 
<http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/faculty/professor/daniel-p-tokaji/>.)  So it 
looks like it’s probably the Ohio Republican Party that’s responsible 
for this confusing ballot.  I suppose it’s conceivable that something 
nefarious is afoot, butHanlon’s Razor 
<http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43863-never-ascribe-to-malice-that-which-is-adequately-explained-by>makes 
me inclined to believe that this is just a mistake.

Whatever the explanation, it’s a disservice to Ohio’s Republican voters. 
And the consequences could be serious, since Ohio’s vote could well 
determine whether Trump goes into the Cleveland convention with a 
majority of delegates or, alternatively, whether there’s a contested 
convention. I’m guessing it won’t just be election officials sayingthe 
election officials’ prayer 
<http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2008/11/calm-before-storm.html>in 
Ohio tonight.

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Posted inelection administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


    “Top conservatives gather to plot third-party run against Trump”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80910>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 1:32 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80910>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Can’t believe it is nottoo late 
<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/top-conservatives-gather-to-plot-third-party-run-against-trump-220786>for 
this.

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Posted inballot access <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>,third 
parties <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>


    “Alabama GOP: Keep Democrats out of our primary elections”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80906>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 10:02 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80906>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Al.com reports. 
<http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/alabama_gop_keeps_democrats_ou.html#incart_river_home>

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Posted inpolitical parties 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,primaries 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>


    “Southern California Law and Social Sciences Forum 2016”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80904>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 8:57 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80904>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This will be another SOCLASS dynamite program:

    Southern California Law and Social Sciences Forum 2016

    *Are We Entering an Era of Dysfunction in American Government?*

    *If So, Can It Be Stopped?*

    **

    Friday, March 18, 2016

    University of California, San Diego

    Co-Sponsored by UCSD’s Center for Tomorrow’s California

    and The Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research

    Location: Room 15A, The Village at Torrey Pines

    //

    /9:00-9:15. Welcome Remarks, Thad Kousser/

    //

    /9:15-10:45. The State of Union: Performance of National Political
    Institutions/

    Chair: Lane Kenworthy (UCSD)

    Discussant: Mona Vakilifathi (UCSD)

    Charles Shipan (Michigan), with Richard J. Anderson and David
    Cottrell, “The Power to Appoint: Presidential Nominations and Change
    on the Supreme Court”

    Betsy Sinclair (Washington University St. Louis), “Dynamic
    Congressional Approval: An ALT-ernative Approach”

    Pamela McCann (USC Price), “House and Senate Negotiations and Policy
    Choice”

    Jordan Peterson (USC), “The Outer Limits of Bureaucratic Neutrality:
    Private Financial Interests and Decision Making on the National
    Labor Relations Board”

    //

    /11:00-12:30. Politics in an Age of Societal Division/

    Chair: Isaac Martin (UCSD)

    Discussant: Amanda Hollis-Brusky (Pomona)

    Ken Miller (Claremont-McKenna), “Polarization and the Administrative
    State”

    Sarah Anderson (UC Santa Barbara), “Voters, Partisanship, and
    Legislative Compromise”

    Don Dripps (USD Law), “Race and Crime in the 21st Century”

    Rachel VanSickle-Ward (Pitzer), “Religion, Women and Health: Gender
    and Issue Framing in/Hobby Lobby/”

    //

    /1:00pm. Keynote Address and Discussion/

    Nate Persily (Stanford Law), “Political Polarization:  Sociological
    Causes and Institutional Solutions”

    /1:45-3:15pm. Laboratories for Reform: Will Changing Institutions
    Change Behavior?/

    Chair: Michael Ramsey (USD)

    Discussant: Neil Malhotra (Stanford)

    Abby Wood (USC Law) and Christian Grose (USC), “Campaign Finance
    Transparency Improves Legislative Candidate Performance at the Polls”

    Seth Hill (UCSD), “Institution of Nomination and the Policy Ideology
    of Primary Electorates”

    Andy Sinclair (NYU), “Tradeoffs in California’s Top-Two Primary”

    Eric McGhee (Public Policy Institute of California), “Has the Top
    Two Primary Elected More Moderates?”

    //

    /3:30-5:00pm. Governing Diversity: Challenges and Solutions/

    Chair and Discussant: Marisa Abrajano (UCSD)

    Discussant: Graeme Boushey (UCI)

    //

    Mila Sohoni (USD Law), “Crackdowns”

    Jean Schroedel, Lily Rowen, and Roger Chin (Claremont Graduate
    University), “Whose Lives Matter? The Media’s Failure to Cover
    Police Shootings of Native Americans”

    Allan Cobern (UC Riverside), “Immigrant Inclusion and Subfederal
    Citizenship in the United States”

 1.

        Morgan Kousser (Caltech), “Joaquin Avila’s Noble Dream:  The
        CVRA and the Integration of Local Government in California”

Share 
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


    “JoAnne Kloppenburg stayed on case involving group that opposed her”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80902>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 8:44 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80902>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: 
<http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/joanne-kloppenburg-stayed-on-case-involving-group-that-opposed-her-b99687501z1-372058071.html>

In her two bids for the state Supreme Court, JoAnne Kloppenburg has 
criticized as too weak an ethics rule that says political spending on 
its own isn’t enough to force a judge off a case.

    But as an appeals judge in 2014, Kloppenburg remained on a case
    involving a group that spent against her in her unsuccessful 2011
    race for the high court. Her ruling kept alive an investigation of
    Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and
    other conservative organizations.

    The state Supreme Court latershut down that investigation
    <http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/wisconsin-supreme-court-wont-reopen-john-doe-probe-rules-against-special-prosecutor-b99626790z1-359988701.html>,
    finding no one had done anything wrong. Investigators had been
    looking into whether the GOP governor and the groups had illegally
    worked together in recall elections.

    Kloppenburg is running in the April 5 election against Justice
    Rebecca Bradley for a 10-year term on the high court.

    In a meeting with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editors and reporters
    last week, Kloppenburg said there was no reason for her to step
    aside from the case because the group had spent money against her,
    not for her.

    “When you have someone running ads for you there is a perception of
    quid pro quo that doesn’t exist when someone is running ads against
    you,” she said.

    But Rick Esenberg, a lawyer backing Bradley, said Kloppenburg “has
    some explaining to do” because of her decision to remain on the case
    while opposing the ethics rule as too weak.

Share 
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,conflict 
of interest laws <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=20>,judicial elections 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>


    “A Situation in Which Donald Trump Wins the White House”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80900>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 7:50 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80900>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

John Harwood 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-white-voters.html?ref=politics&_r=0>for 
the NYT:

    The number of white voters Mr. Trump attracts keeps shrinking as a
    share of the electorate, while the number of nonwhite voters he
    repels keeps growing, a pattern that helped President Obama retain
    the White House.

    Yet few political trends continue in a straight line. Some Democrats
    have begun to cast a wary eye on Mr. Trump’s unconventional
    candidacy. And now a group of political demographers has calculated
    how Mr. Trump might pull off a narrow victory in November by
    slightly increasing the share of the white vote gained by Mitt
    Romney, the Republican nominee in 2012.

    The group’s election model assumes continued growth among
    African-American, Latino, Asian-American and other nonwhite voters,
    as has occurred every four years since the Clinton era. It assumes
    that constituencies for both parties turn out at the same rates as
    in 2012.

    Under those circumstances, the demographers found, an increase of
    four percentage points in the proportion of whites backing Mr. Trump
    could flip eight states that Mr. Obama carried in 2012. That would
    give Mr. Trump a slim edge of 49.7 percent to 48.6 percent in the
    popular vote and 315 electoral votes — 45 more than needed to win
    the White House.

    “It’s a hard thing to pull off,” said Ruy Teixeira, a co-authorof
    the analysis
    <https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/news/2016/02/25/131668/election-oracle/>who
    works at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “But I
    certainly wouldn’t rule it out.”

Share 
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Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


    Lyle Denniston Previews Va Racial Gerrymandering Case, Argued Next
    Week at #SCOTUS <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80898>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 7:41 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80898>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here, at SCOTUSBlog 
<http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/03/argument-preview-once-again-the-issue-is-race-2/>.

Share 
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Posted inredistricting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>,Supreme Court 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


    “Analysis: Scant Evidence for Abbott’s ‘Rampant’ Voter Fraud”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80896>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 7:37 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80896>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ross 
Ramsey<http://www.texastribune.org/2016/03/15/analysis-scant-evidence-abbott-rampant-voter-fraud/>for 
the Texas Tribune.

Yup <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80882>.

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Posted inelection administration 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,fraudulent fraud squad 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>,The Voting Wars 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


    “Division among Koch donors over failure to stop Donald Trump”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80894>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 7:36 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80894>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Guardian reports. 
<http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/15/koch-brothers-republican-donors-disappointed-donald-trump-attacks?CMP=share_btn_tw>

Share 
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


    “Defining the Press Exemption from Campaign Finance Restrictions”
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80892>

Posted onMarch 15, 2016 7:30 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=80892>byRick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New /Harvard Law Review/student note. 
<http://harvardlawreview.org/2016/03/defining-the-press-exemption-from-campaign-finance-restrictions/?platform=hootsuite>

I address this question in detail in a chapter ofPlutocrats United. 
<http://www.amazon.com/Plutocrats-United-Campaign-Distortion-Elections/dp/0300212453/>

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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,Supreme 
Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

-- 
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
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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