[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/8/19

[Rick Hasen]

The Trump/McGahn 30-40 Year Plan on the Judiciary<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104591>
Posted on April 8, 2019 7:43 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104591> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Axios:<https://www.axios.com/white-house-counsel-don-mcgahn-trump-mueller-republican-lunch-7b687a07-4acf-4578-ac32-f0c421c74070.html>

McGahn said a big part of his job as White House counsel was to deregulate and rein in the “administrative state.”
He said he did that by writing deregulatory executive orders and picking judicial nominees who wanted to limit the power of federal agencies.
He talked about Trump nominating judges who agree that the courts have given too much flexibility to federal agencies to interpret laws and enforce regulations.
McGahn said they looked for potential judges who wanted to reconsider the “Chevron deference,” which requires the courts to defer to federal agencies’ “reasonable” interpretations of ambiguous laws.
McGahn said Trump’s judges will spend 30–40 years unwinding the power of executive agencies.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“House Democratic Campaign Arm Nears War With Liberals Over Primary Fights”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104589>
Posted on April 8, 2019 7:41 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104589> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/us/politics/democrats-liberals-tension.html>

The House Democratic campaign arm is nearing open warfare with the party’s rising liberal wing as political operatives close to Speaker Nancy Pelosi try to shut down primary challenges before what is likely to be a hard-fought campaign next year to preserve the party’s shaky majority.

Progressive Democrats were infuriated last month when Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois, the chairwoman of the campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, moved to protect centrist incumbents by formally breaking committee business ties with political consultants and pollsters who go to work for primary challengers.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, who owes her seat to a successful primary challenge, went so far as to encourage her 3.8 million Twitter followers to “pause”<https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1112100589788450816> their donations to the campaign committee in protest. She also started a fund-raising push on her official Twitter account for Representatives Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, Katie Hill of California and Mike Levin of California. That initiative, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter<https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1112519701886832640>, raised $30,000 in roughly two hours. She also helped raise money for Representatives Katie Porter of California and Lauren Underwood of Illinois.
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Posted in political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>


“Washington Democrats choose presidential primary for 2020, ditching precinct caucuses”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104587>
Posted on April 7, 2019 8:03 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104587> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Seattle Times reports.<https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-democrats-choose-presidential-primary-for-2020-ditching-caucuses/>
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Posted in political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>


“Is civic duty the solution to the paradox of voting?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104585>
Posted on April 6, 2019 10:12 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104585> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Abel François and Olivier Gergaud in Public Choice<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-018-00635-7?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals&utm_source=toc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_11127_180_3>:

Although sense of civic duty is seen by many scholars as the most obvious solution to the paradox of voting, very few empirical studies provide clear evidence on that motive. We use blood donation to build proxies, focusing only on intrinsic motivations, and then introduce such measures into electoral turnout regressions. Our results show that civic duty has a strong influence on voter turnout rates, confirming that the satisfaction voters receive from voting matters regardless of election outcomes. The results are even stronger when we incorporate the number of plasma and platelet donations, which take more time and require stronger commitments from donors.
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Posted in theory<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=41>, voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>


“Suddenly, the Electoral College becomes a hot-button issue”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104583>
Posted on April 6, 2019 10:10 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104583> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jack Torry reports<https://www.timesreporter.com/news/20190406/suddenly-electoral-college-becomes-hot-button-issue>.
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>


More on Who Is Behind Effort to Put a Popular Vote Measure for Electoral College on Ohio Ballot<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104581>
Posted on April 6, 2019 10:08 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104581> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cincinnati Enquirer<https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/01/ohioans-could-vote-national-popular-vote-measure/3333982002/>:

Columbus attorney Don McTigue, who submitted the proposed amendment, referred The Enquirer to Reed Hundt, CEO of Making Every Vote Count, a nonprofit that advocates electing the president through a national popular vote. Hundt, reached by phone Monday, said his group offered legal advice to the petitioners but he would not say who they were or answer any questions about the effort.

But emails obtained by The Enquirer through a public records request show five petitioners have been named to the amendment committee: James J. Bishop, Carole A. DePaola, Karen Sue Foley, and Daniel J. McKay of Columbus; and David P. Little of Cincinnati.

McKay is the Franklin County Democratic Party executive director. DePaola is the secretary of the Ohio Democratic Party Women’s Caucus and was a 2016 elector for Hillary Clinton.

Little, a longtime Southwest Ohio political consultant, declined to comment when asked by The Enquirer who was organizing or paying for the effort.
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Posted in electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>


Shenanigans Going on with Ohio Ballot Measure Purportedly Aimed at Getting State to Assign Electoral College Votes to the Popular Vote Winner<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104579>
Posted on April 5, 2019 12:25 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104579> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

John Koza<https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/2019/04/04/opinion-national-popular-vote-group-not-behind-state-petition-eliminate-electoral-college/3357935002/>, the force behind the National Popular Vote initiative writes:

Ohio news organizations have been trying to identify the mysterious backers of an initiative petition proposing an amendment to the Ohio Constitution requiring the Ohio legislature to guarantee the presidency to the candidate receiving the most popular votes nationwide.

After making public records requests attempting to identify the backers, The Cincinnati Enquirer concluded, “It’s not clear who’s pushing the initiative in Ohio.”<https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/01/ohioans-could-vote-national-popular-vote-measure/3333982002/> The Columbus Dispatch said, “It is unclear who is behind the Ohio initiative.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, “It’s not clear which group is behind the proposal.” An Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman denied<https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190401/ohioans-might-vote-on-issue-to-give-presidency-to-national-popular-vote-winner> the party was behind it.

What is definitely clear is who isn’t behind it – namely the National Popular Vote organization which wrote the National Popular Vote interstate compact in 2006 and has won enactment of the compact by 14 states possessing 184 electoral votes (just 86 short of the 270 needed to put the legislation into effect). Moreover, state Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus, the sponsor in Ohio of the actual National Popular Vote compact, has said he does not know who is behind the petition.

Not only is the National Popular Vote organization not behind this mystery petition, there are three reasons why it is clear that this petition is not a bona fide effort to enact the compact, but, instead, an effort to use the compact’s widespread public support to facilitate passage in the legislature of something entirely different.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, electoral college<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>


Third Federal District Court Blocks Citizenship Question on Census, This one on APA and Enumeration Clause Violations<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104577>
Posted on April 5, 2019 10:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104577> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can find the opinion here<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5796349-April-5-2019-Opinion-by-U-S-District-Judge.html> (via Hansi Lo Wang<https://twitter.com/hansilowang/status/1114206964639260673>).

These issues are already before the Supreme Court in the New York census case<https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/department-of-commerce-v-new-york/?wpmp_switcher=desktop>.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>


“Texas Lawmakers Consider Stiff Penalties For Voting Crimes”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104575>
Posted on April 5, 2019 9:28 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104575> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR reports.<https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/710169536/texas-lawmakers-consider-stiff-penalties-for-voting-crimes?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social>
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Courts Have No Say When FEC Wants To Ignore Alleged Wrongdoing”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104573>
Posted on April 5, 2019 9:11 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104573> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ken Doyle<https://about.bgov.com/news/courts-have-no-say-when-fec-wants-to-ignore-alleged-wrongdoing/>:

A decision by two federal judges is making it impossible to challenge the way the Federal Election Commission enforces campaign laws.

When the FEC deadlocks along party lines, that’s now the end of the line — no court can second-guess letting an accused wrongdoer off the hook.
In a decision<http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/CITIZENSFORRESPONSIBILITYANDETHICSINWASHINGTONetalvFEDERALELECTIO/1?doc_id=X1Q6O2VH9IO2?fmt=pdf> handed down in March, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said he was foreclosed from reviewing the FEC’s dismissal of a complaint against a nonprofit that refused to disclose where it got the money to give more than $3 million to super political action committees during the 2012 election.

That group, New Models, spent more on political donations than anything else that year, according to a complaint by the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The judge agreed with FEC staff lawyers who had written<http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/CITIZENSFORRESPONSIBILITYANDETHICSINWASHINGTONetalvFEDERALELECTIO/2?doc_id=X1Q6O30HUCO2?imagename=28-1.pdf> that the Republican commissioners who voted to drop the New Models case have “prosecutorial discretion,” and their wishes are “judicially unreviewable.”

Judicial review was eliminated last June, in a 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Critics of that ruling have waited for the better part of year to find out if they’ll be allowed to argue before the full court on reversing that precedent.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal election commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>

--
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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