[EL] ELB News and Commentary 2/5/18

Sun Feb 4 21:03:56 PST 2018

“After Years of Investigation, a Sudden Folding of the Case Against Menendez”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97336>
Posted on February 4, 2018 9:00 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97336> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/04/nyregion/menendez-corruption-trial-new-jersey.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront>

Five days after the Department of Justice announced that it would retry Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the judge in the case all but ripped out its core. Prosecutors, he said in an 53-page opinion, had failed to prove that the senator, a Democrat, had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for lobbying on behalf of his co-defendant.

The government’s allegations of campaign contributions for favors performed were “empty of relevant evidential fact,” Judge William Walls wrote. “There is no there there.”

The department was forced to conclude that the same was now true of its entire case. In a whiplash decision, it announced that it would not, in fact, retry Mr. Menendez, eliminating for Democrats the embarrassing prospect of having a sitting senator running for re-election while on trial for corruption.

The judge’s decision further exposed what the bribery case against Mr. Menendez and Dr. Salomon Melgen, a wealthy eye doctor from Florida and a longtime friend of the senator, lacked from the start: no key witness, no obvious quid pro quo. He left in place 11 of the 18 charges, including bribery based on trips on a private plane and other lavish gifts, as well as allegations that Mr. Menendez made false statements about those gifts — a charge even defense lawyers conceded was the hardest to beat.

But Judge Walls blew a hole in the government’s timeline and bounty of evidence, and made it hard to argue a motive for making false statements. The defense, meanwhile, still had its steady refrain: this was friendship, not corruption.
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Posted in bribery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>, Department of Justice<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>

“Kobach will represent himself in upcoming trial. Is it a smart move?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97334>
Posted on February 4, 2018 8:40 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97334> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Wichita Eagle:<http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article198143494.html>

When a federal lawsuit challenging Kansas’s proof of citizenship voter law goes to trial in March, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach plans to be in the courtroom.

He’ll be the attorney defending the law he crafted.

Rarely, if ever, do statewide elected officials represent themselves at trial.

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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“The ‘Slave Power’ Behind Florida’s Felon Disenfranchisement; Laws barring the formerly incarcerated from voting have no business marring politics in a 21st century democracy”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97331>
Posted on February 4, 2018 8:31 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97331> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Garrett Epps for the Atlantic.<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/the-slave-power-behind-floridas-felon-disenfranchisement/552269/>
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Opponents of gerrymandering keep winning, but it might not affect 2018”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97329>
Posted on February 4, 2018 8:19 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97329> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bob Barnes for WaPo<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/opponents-of-gerrymandering-keep-winning-but-it-might-not-affect-2018/2018/02/04/83e5785c-078f-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?utm_term=.908a65277278&wpmk=MK0000200> on the pending stay requests in Pa, NC, and more.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Cybertraining Election Officials For This Year’s Voting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97327>
Posted on February 3, 2018 11:11 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97327> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The great Pam Fessler reports<https://www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582652050/cybertraining-election-officials-for-this-years-voting?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social> for NPR (before she goes on a year-long book leave):

It was clear that many of those gathering in Orlando already have protections in place and are well aware of the risks. But some county election offices are extremely small, with no IT staff of their own. Dana Southerland runs elections in Taylor County, which has only 13,000 voters. She said she picked up some useful tips, such as changing passwords and being careful about opening e-mails.

“Making sure that it’s not a phishing e-mail or something like that. I had no idea what that was until we started having some of these workshops,” she said.

Southerland — who is also President of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections and helped organize the session — said perhaps the most important message is that no one is immune from attack, and they have to be prepared.
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Posted in chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Elections and Redistricting Expert Jeffrey M. Wice Joins Rockefeller Institute of Government”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97325>
Posted on February 3, 2018 11:08 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97325> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Congrats to Jeff Wice! Release:
Albany, NY — The Rockefeller Institute is pleased to announce that Jeffrey M. Wice, nationally renowned expert on elections and redistricting, is joining the Institute as a research fellow. Wice brings more than 35 years of experience working in redistricting, voting rights, and census law.
“I’m proud to welcome Jeff Wice to the Rockefeller Institute team,” said Rockefeller Institute President Jim Malatras. “With public trust in elections eroding and the 2020 census on the horizon, his work on election and census law is vital and timely. I look forward to working together to bring much-needed objective research and analysis to bear on these issues.”
Wice has consulted on redistricting and voting rights matters for members of Congress, state legislative leaders, and state and local government officials around the country. He has been included in Roll Call‘s list of top 50 Washington policy insiders.
Wice currently serves as staff co-chair of the Redistricting and Elections Standing Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). He serves as “of counsel” to Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., is a fellow at SUNY Buffalo Law School, and has taught election law at Hofstra Law School and the Touro Law Center.
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Posted in election law biz<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>

League of Women Voters Files SCOTUS Opposition to Stay in Pa Congressional Gerrymandering Case; SCOTUS May Rule in This and NC Stay Case At Any Time<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97321>
Posted on February 2, 2018 12:31 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97321> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Here:<https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17A795/34255/20180202151818707_LWV%20v%20Pa%20--%20Opposition%20to%20Stay%20Applications%202.2.2018.pdf>

Applicants’ ostensible hook for federal intervention is an Elections Clause theory that this Court has squarely rejected in decisions dating back nearly a century. To accept Applicants’ theory, this Court would need to overrule no fewer than six of its precedents, all upholding the power of state courts to review and remedy unconstitutional congressional districting plans. In these circumstances, Applicants cannot seriously maintain that this Court will grant certiorari or reverse. Their stay applications are just a ploy to preserve a congressional map that violates Pennsylvania’s Constitution for one more election cycle.

This Court need not take our word for it. For months, Applicants in No. 17A795 (“Legislative Applicants”) have been telling federal courts in separate suits challenging Pennsylvania’s 2011 map that, under settled precedent, they must defer 2 to Pennsylvania state courts. They told this Court that federal courts would be “usurp[ing] the power of the Pennsylvania state courts” to review and remedy the map, and just last week they persuaded a federal court to grant a stay in deference to this state court action. Legislative Applicants cannot now obtain a stay of the state court’s judgment on the theory that state courts have no power in this realm.

The Court may rule on this stay request, and the North Carolina stay request, at any time. Maybe Monday?  I expect there will be no stay granted in either case and that there will be dissents, but then again I did not expect Justice Alito to even ask for a response in the PA case given how longshot the argument is.

Meanwhile…
<https://twitter.com/lauraolson/status/959521191923998720>

[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/861753543371493376/8jZtKCj-_bigger.jpg]Laura Olson<https://twitter.com/lauraolson>
✔@lauraolson<https://twitter.com/lauraolson>

Latest twist in PA redistricting saga: top GOP state legislators are seeking the disqualification of state Supreme Court Justice David Wecht over public comments he's made on gerrymandering.
12:17 PM - Feb 2, 2018<https://twitter.com/lauraolson/status/959521191923998720>
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Update: It looks like the recusal argument may be waived.<https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17A795/34218/20180202135701728_17A795%20Opposition.pdf>
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Plaintiffs File Supreme Court Response Opposing Stay in North Carolina Racial Gerrymandering Case<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97319>
Posted on February 2, 2018 9:43 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97319> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can read it here<https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work/17-A-790-Response-in-Opposition-to-Emergency-Application-for-Stay.pdf>.
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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
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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