[EL] Someone is violating election law listserv rules

[Thomas J. Cares]

*good coverage

On Monday, May 15, 2017, Thomas J. Cares <Tom at tomcares.com> wrote:

> (For what little it's worth, I think Professor Minnite's effort are too
> tough to spin into anything bad and that this all actually amounts to good
> courage. I see this as failed spin and fortuitous. -Tom Cares)
>
> On Monday, May 15, 2017, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rhasen at law.uci.edu');>> wrote:
>
>> *No, “Liberal Professors” are Not “Trad[ing] Secret Emails” About Trump
>> Voter Fraud Commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92518>*
>>
>> Posted on May 14, 2017 9:03 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=92518> by *Rick
>> Hasen* <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>>
>> A breathless
>> <http://freebeacon.com/issues/liberal-professors-trade-secret-emails-effort-undermine-trump-commission/>Free
>> Beacon story (like stories on Breitbar
>> <http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/11/rutgers-prof-launches-effort-to-oppose-trumps-election-integrity-commission/>t
>> and the Daily Calle
>> <http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/12/liberal-prof-calls-on-election-law-experts-to-boycott-trumps-voter-fraud-commission/>r)
>> points to Professor Lorraine Minnite’s efforts via the Election Law
>> listserv to enlist other election law academics and professionals to
>> organize a counter effort to Trump’s “voter fraud” commission.
>>
>> The Free Beacon story is worse than the others because it tries to market
>> Professor Minnite’s efforts as part of some secret conspiracy. The headline
>> is: “Liberal Professors Trade Secret Emails in Effort to Undermine Trump
>> Commission.”
>>
>> To begin with, the Election Law listserv, which I have managed with
>> Professor Dan Lowenstein since 1994, has over 1000 members, and many of
>> them are not “liberal professors.” Certainly Jim Bopp and Brad Smith, who
>> are active participants on the list, are no one’s liberals. Nor is
>> Lowenstein himself.
>>
>> Second, the email is not secret. It is publicly posted
>> <http://department-lists.uci.edu/pipermail/law-election/2017-May/014345.html> in
>> the listserv’s archives.
>>
>> Third, the idea of forming a counter commission to Trump’s faux “voter
>> fraud” commission is neither new or private. On January 25, I wrote at
>> Slate:
>> <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/01/trump_s_voting_fraud_investigation_is_a_great_idea.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top>
>>
>> *Baseless allegations of voter fraud hurt our democracy. You would think
>> after the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush spent five
>> years investigating voter fraud with nothing to show for it
>> <https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html>, the voter
>> fraud canard would have been put to bed years ago. This call for a major
>> investigation, if done fairly, could finally put the issue to bed. Let’s
>> not fool ourselves into believing President Trump would order a fair
>> investigation. But if he doesn’t, we will need a shadow investigation to
>> counter whatever a Trump commission might put out to support its boss’
>> baseless conclusions.*
>>
>>  (My emphasis.)
>>
>> So why was Prof. Minnite so exercised about the question of who sent the
>> emails to these far right publications? Because it violates the posted
>> rules of the listserv
>> <http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election>:
>>
>> *Members of the press may subscribe to the listserv and may describe in
>> general terms the substance of discussion on the list, but should not quote
>> posted comments or attribute ideas to specific individuals without the
>> consent of the individuals.*
>>
>> The listserv has operated on the idea that it is a public list, and that
>> archives are valuable for research and educational purposes, but that
>> people will show courtesy to others before passing messages directly to the
>> press. Someone was quite discourteous here. But that doesn’t translate, as
>> Free Beacon makes it, into uncovering the work of a secret liberal cabal.
>>
>> [image: hare]
>> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92518&title=No%2C%20%E2%80%9CLiberal%20Professors%E2%80%9D%20are%20Not%20%E2%80%9CTrad%5Bing%5D%20Secret%20Emails%E2%80%9D%20About%20Trump%20Voter%20Fraud%20Commission>
>>
>> Posted in Uncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> 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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