[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/28/18

Sat Apr 28 09:33:52 PDT 2018

“Oppo researcher leaves the White House; Michael Roman, a former Koch operative, served as the right-hand man to the White House’s top attorney.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98880>
Posted on April 28, 2018 9:31 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98880> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico reports.<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/28/michael-roman-leaves-white-house-oppo-559165>

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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Indiana: “Rokita, Messer deny wrongdoing in possible straw donor scheme”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98878>
Posted on April 27, 2018 8:12 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98878> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

IndyStar:<https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/27/rokita-messer-deny-wrongdoing-possible-straw-donor-scheme/551177002/>

Three Indiana members of Congress gave and received money from Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci in what experts said may have been an improper straw donor scheme — including two Indiana congressmen running for the U.S. Senate.

The Senate candidates, Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, denied any wrongdoing. Rep. Jackie Walorski’s campaign did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported<https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/05/critics-say-rep-jim-renacci-may-have-used-straw-donor-scheme-fund-state-campaign-account/491033002/> that Messer and Walorski received contributions from Renacci’s congressional campaign between April and June last year. Although he was not named in that story, Rokita also received campaign contributions from Renacci.

Within two months of receiving a donation, all three then contributed money to Renacci’s gubernatorial campaign. In Messer’s case, the contribution occurred just one day after his campaign received a donation from Renacci.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Texas’ Voter ID Law Does Not Discriminate and Can Stand, Appeals Panel Rules”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98876>
Posted on April 27, 2018 8:00 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98876> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Manny Fernandez<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/us/texas-voter-id.html> reports for the NY Times.
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Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, voter id<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

5th Circuit ID ruling … and the Texas redistricting case.<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98873>
Posted on April 27, 2018 5:02 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98873> by Justin Levitt<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=4>

Earlier today<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98859>, Rick noted the 5th Circuit’s opinion<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/vease-opinion.pdf> on Texas’s voter ID law.  I agree with much of his critique of the court’s resolution of the section 3(c) preclearance issue.

In my post on the Texas redistricting cases<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98793> earlier this week, I highlighted one reason why Judge Jones’ analysis of the section 3 issue is dangerous: it takes any teeth out of plaintiffs’ abilities to confront intentional discrimination when a jurisdiction can reap the benefits of the discriminatory law while fighting and delaying resolution.  Under Judge Jones’ structure, there’s little incentive not to discriminate, as long as the officials implementing the law calculate that they’ll be marginally better off in the interim between passage of the law and the imposition of an eventual remedy.  And under this structure, section 3 becomes completely impotent.  We’re back to whac-a-mole.

Particularly in light of the 5th Circuit’s decision, it seems like an opportune time to plug Josh Douglas’s and Michael Solimine’s excellent (and now exceedingly timely) article<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3099771> on three-judge courts’ interaction with circuit decisions.  Depending on what happens at SCOTUS with the Texas redistricting case argued earlier this week, the three-judge Texas redistricting court may well find that it is asked to confront Judge Jones’ opinion about the impact of a later-enacted law.  And then the three-judge court is going to have to decide exactly how much attention to pay to that 5th Circuit opinion, which is exactly the issue that Josh and Michael lay out in interesting detail.
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, election law and constitutional law<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=55>, redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, voter id<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>

--
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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