[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/12/17

Wed Apr 12 10:37:55 PDT 2017

Chief Justice Roberts at Best Half Right About Partisanship on #SCOTUS<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92079>
Posted on April 12, 2017 10:35 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92079> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
In remarks<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/partisan-battles-over-nominees-pose-real-danger-for-supreme-court-chief-justice-says/2017/04/11/62e89c2c-1ee9-11e7-a0a7-8b2a45e3dc84_story.html?utm_term=.bbe6e577a87a> at a college yesterday, the Chief was right to say that the confirmation process is exceedingly partisan:
 “It is a real danger that the partisan hostility that people see in the political branches will affect the nonpartisan activity of the judicial branch. It is very difficult I think for a member of the public to look at what goes on in confirmation hearings these days, which is a very sharp conflict in political terms between Democrats and Republicans, and not think that the person who comes out of that process must similarly share that partisan view of public issues and public life.”
The part where he is wrong is when he says that the Justices decide the cases before them “in a completely nonpartisan way.”
If by that the Chief means that the Justices do not consciously consider the positions of the party of the President that appointed him or her, that’s probably correct. But where he is incorrect is to suggest that there is no partisan valence to the decisions of the Court. On issues like affirmative action, voting rights campaign finance, abortion, environmental law and more—-the most difficult issues to come before the Court—the Court generally divides along ideological lines. And since the retirement of Justice Stevens, those ideological lines correspond with partisan lines as well. All the conservative Justices were appointed by Republican presidents and all the liberal Justices were appointed by Democratic presidents.
To pretend it is “nonpartisan” and balls and strikes ignores reality.
And the trend is likely to get much worse.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92079&title=Chief%20Justice%20Roberts%20at%20Best%20Half%20Right%20About%20Partisanship%20on%20%23SCOTUS>
Posted in Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“The Lost History of the Millionaire’s Amendment”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92076>
Posted on April 12, 2017 10:21 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92076> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Katherine Shaw<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2945671> has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Election Law Journal).  Here is the abstract:
 This piece excavates the history of the Millionaire’s Amendment, a short-lived provision of campaign finance law that played a significant role in Barack Obama’s successful 2004 Senate campaign. It argues that beyond the Amendment’s role in that single, fateful race, it supplies a useful test case for examining competing paradigms for regulating money in politics.

[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92076&title=%E2%80%9CThe%20Lost%20History%20of%20the%20Millionaire%E2%80%99s%20Amendment%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

Nick Stephanopoulos and Ruth Greenwood’s Gerrymandering Wedding Cake Also on John Oliver Segment<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92074>
Posted on April 12, 2017 10:18 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92074> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Watch<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-4dIImaodQ&feature=youtu.be&t=13m53s> around the 14 minute mark (NSFW).
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92074&title=Nick%20Stephanopoulos%20and%20Ruth%20Greenwood%E2%80%99s%20Gerrymandering%20Wedding%20Cake%20Also%20on%20John%20Oliver%20Segment>
Posted in election law "humor"<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=52>, redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

“District Court Holds that Texas Discriminated Against Minority Voters, Again”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92072>
Posted on April 11, 2017 3:12 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92072> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Danielle Lang and Gerry Hebert blog.<https://takecareblog.com/blog/district-court-holds-that-texas-discriminated-against-minority-voters-again>
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Posted in Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

“Enter Justice Gorsuch. What now for campaign finance reform?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92070>
Posted on April 11, 2017 3:10 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92070> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Blair Bowie blogs.<http://www.demos.org/blog/4/11/17/enter-justice-gorsuch-what-now-campaign-finance-reform>
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92070&title=%E2%80%9CEnter%20Justice%20Gorsuch.%20What%20now%20for%20campaign%20finance%20reform%3F%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

NC: Deja Vu Dept: NC Again Passes Law Changing Election Boards Now That There’s a Democratic Governor<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92068>
Posted on April 11, 2017 3:08 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92068> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WRAL:<http://www.wral.com/veto-fight-ahead-over-elections-board-rewrite/16638956/>
State legislative leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper are likely headed for another veto fight, this time over a measure that would reconfigure the state’s oversight of elections, ethics and lobbying. Lawmakers sent the bill to Cooper’s desk Tuesday.
In December 2016 during a special session, state lawmakers approved a proposal to do away with the existing State Board of Elections and replace it with the state’s ethics board, half appointed by the governor and the other half appointed by state lawmakers. That law also gave Republicans control of all local elections boards in each election year.
Cooper sued to block the law, saying it violated the separation of powers in the state constitution, and a three-judge panel agreed last month.
Senate Bill 68 is an attempt to revive<http://ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2017&BillID=S68&submitButton=Go> some of that enjoined law,…
Cooper has already said he intends to veto the measure, calling it a GOP attempt to curtail voting rights.
“Their first attempt to gain control of elections boards through a law passed in December was recently found unconstitutional. And now the legislature is at it again, simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Cooper wrote in a post on Medium<https://medium.com/@NC_Governor/another-gop-attempt-to-limit-access-to-the-ballot-box-22f2b1740ba4>. “The bill before the House today is another attempt to rig our state and county elections boards, doubling down on a Republican goal of reducing early voting, same-day registration and other tools that make it easier to vote.”
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

--
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
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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