[EL] more news 7/12/17

Wed Jul 12 13:47:23 PDT 2017

“Donald Trump Jr.’s Free Speech Defense: It’s as bogus as it sounds.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93787>
Posted on July 12, 2017 1:46 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93787> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
I have written this piece<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/donald_trump_jr_s_free_speech_defense_is_as_bogus_as_it_sounds.html> for Slate. It begins:
Get ready for the latest defense for Donald Trump Jr.’s actions: He had a First Amendment right<https://twitter.com/baseballcrank/status/884868957647376384> to collude with the Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. This defense, which has been advanced by noted First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/07/12/can-it-be-a-crime-to-do-opposition-research-by-asking-foreigners-for-information/?utm_term=.dd42f90b531e> and others, posits that he cannot be charged under campaign finance laws for soliciting a foreign contribution because seeking and providing such information would be protected political speech<http://lawnewz.com/opinion/why-donald-trump-jr-is-innocent-period/>, or at least protected for an American to receive. It’s a dangerous argument which fails to recognize the compelling interest promoted by Congress’s ban on foreign contributions: specifically guarding American self-government against foreign intrusion.
It concludes:
Right after the Supreme Court decided the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC<https://www.oyez.org/cases/2008/08-205>, freeing corporations to spend money in elections independent of campaigns on the grounds that such independent spending cannot corrupt democracy, a Canadian lawyer living in New York named Benjamin Bluman brought a similar suit. He argued that his independent spending of 50 cents to make flyers and hand them out in Central Park in support of President Barack Obama should not be a crime because he could not corrupt the process.
A three-judge district court, in an opinion by conservative D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, roundly rejected the argument and affirmed the broad scope of the foreign contribution ban in Bluman v. FEC<https://casetext.com/case/bluman-v-federal-election-commission-2>: “It is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government. It follows, therefore, that the United States has a compelling interest for purposes of First Amendment analysis in limiting the participation of foreign citizens in activities of American democratic self-government, and in thereby preventing foreign influence over the U.S. political process.” The Supreme Court thought this result was so self-evident it summarily affirmed<https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3518822143819459322&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr> the lower court judgment without scheduling argument and without issuing a separate decision. That is how obvious the country’s interest is in preventing foreign influence over our elections.
To let someone off the hook who solicited “very high level and sensitive information” from a hostile government because there may be cases in which information from a foreign source does not raise the same danger to our national security and right of self-government is to turn the First Amendment into a tool to kill American democracy.
Put aside the incredulity Trump World would deserve if it pivots from saying there were no campaign contacts with the Russian government to acknowledging the contacts and saying they were just free speech. As a matter of protecting American democracy, the argument is pernicious and threatens the very core of what it means for “we the people” to decide who governs us.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93787&title=%E2%80%9CDonald%20Trump%20Jr.%E2%80%99s%20Free%20Speech%20Defense%3A%20It%E2%80%99s%20as%20bogus%20as%20it%20sounds.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Orchestrated Chaos; Trump’s election commission has been a disaster. It’s going exactly as planned.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93785>
Posted on July 12, 2017 12:53 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93785> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Dahlia Lithwick<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/trump_s_election_commission_has_been_a_disaster_it_s_going_exactly_as_planned.html>:
Destabilizing and undermining the idea that voting in America matters, especially against the backdrop of an election in which foreign interference might actually have had an influence on the outcome, is all to the good. Think back on the pathetic rollout of the travel ban, the witless legal defenses, and the serial losses at the courts of appeals. It wouldn’t have been hard to get that right either. The depressing answer is that nobody in this administration cares to get anything right. Getting it wrong and shattering confidence in the wheels and levers of democracy is its own reward.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93785&title=%E2%80%9COrchestrated%20Chaos%3B%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20election%20commission%20has%20been%20a%20disaster.%20It%E2%80%99s%20going%20exactly%20as%20planned.%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Fair Elections Legal Network Brings Claim that EAC Commissioner McCormick Is Illegally Also Serving on Pence-Kobach Fraud Commission<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93783>
Posted on July 12, 2017 12:50 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93783> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Complaint<http://fairelectionsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/FELN-Complaint-to-EAC-Office-of-Inspector-General-Re-Commissioner-McCormicks-Service-on-PACEI.pdf> to the Office of the Inspector General.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93783&title=Fair%20Elections%20Legal%20Network%20Brings%20Claim%20that%20EAC%20Commissioner%20McCormick%20Is%20Illegally%20Also%20Serving%20on%20Pence-Kobach%20Fraud%20Commission>
Posted in Election Assistance Commission<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=34>, fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“American Democracy Is Now Under Siege by Both Cyber-Espionage and GOP Voter Suppression”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93780>
Posted on July 12, 2017 8:40 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93780> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ari Berman writes<https://www.thenation.com/article/american-democracy-is-now-under-siege-by-both-cyber-espionage-and-gop-voter-suppression/> for The Nation.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93780&title=%E2%80%9CAmerican%20Democracy%20Is%20Now%20Under%20Siege%20by%20Both%20Cyber-Espionage%20and%20GOP%20Voter%20Suppression%E2%80%9D>
Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

Toobin: “Are Donald Trump, Jr.’s E-mails About Meeting with a Russian Lawyer Evidence of a Crime?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93778>
Posted on July 12, 2017 7:44 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93778> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jeff Toobin <http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/are-donald-trump-jrs-e-mails-about-meeting-with-a-russian-lawyer-evidence-of-a-crime> in The New Yorker.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93778&title=Toobin%3A%20%E2%80%9CAre%20Donald%20Trump%2C%20Jr.%E2%80%99s%20E-mails%20About%20Meeting%20with%20a%20Russian%20Lawyer%20Evidence%20of%20a%20Crime%3F%E2%80%9D>
Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Why Democrats are taking aim at gerrymandering”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93776>
Posted on July 12, 2017 6:45 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93776> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Steve Mazie<https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/07/economist-explains-6> for the Economist on Gil v. Whitford.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D93776&title=%E2%80%9CWhy%20Democrats%20are%20taking%20aim%20at%20gerrymandering%E2%80%9D>
Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, 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<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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