[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/15/19

Mon Apr 15 08:39:26 PDT 2019

“The Seven Things to Look for When Reading the Redacted Mueller Report”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104683>
Posted on April 15, 2019 8:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104683> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

I have written this piece <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/mueller-report-release-redacted-preview.html> for Slate. It begins:

Attorney General William Barr has indicated that a redacted version of the Mueller report is likely to be sent to Congress this week<https://www.wsj.com/articles/washington-waits-in-suspense-for-mueller-report-11555193798> and made public. It could come any day now, though a Good Friday release, coinciding with the beginning of Passover, would be the news dump to end all news dumps.

Whenever the report comes, how will we know what to look for? From Barr’s summary<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/24/us/politics/barr-letter-mueller-report.html>released a few weeks ago, we expect the report to focus on both the question of possible “collusion” between Russian agents and Americans as well as whether the president obstructed justice in seeking to prevent a full and fair investigation of possible collusion.

Passover begins with asking four questions, and in that spirit, I begin with four questions about possible collusion that I have been anticipating since the Barr summary that I hope we will be able to answer once we get to dig into the report itself.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>, Department of Justice<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>

Quote of the Day<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104681>
Posted on April 15, 2019 7:54 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104681> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

““The Titanic was launched with less hubris and more preparation.”

Justin Levitt, in his forthcoming Columbia Law Review article, Citizenship and the Census<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3250265>, as quoted in Adam Liptak’s NYT Sidebar preview<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/us/politics/supreme-court-citizenship-census.html> of the upcoming oral argument in the census citizenship question case before the Supreme Court.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“How Albany is going after Trump’s taxes; A state bill that could force Trump to release his tax returns is not the first effort”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104679>
Posted on April 15, 2019 7:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104679> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

City & State reports.<https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/ethics/how-albany-going-after-trumps-taxes.html>
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Posted in ballot access<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Balkinization Symposium on Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum, The Company They Keep– Collected Posts”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104677>
Posted on April 15, 2019 7:31 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104677> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
[Devins and Baum, The Company They Keep]

Balkinization<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/balkinization-symposium-on-neal-devins.html>:

Here are the collected posts for our Balkinization symposium on Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum’s new book, The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court<https://www.amazon.com/Company-They-Keep-Partisan-Divisions/dp/0190278056/> (Oxford University Press, 2019).

1. Jack Balkin, Introduction to Balkinization Symposium on Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum, The Company They Keep<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/introduction-to-balkinization-symposium.html>

2. Richard L. Hasen, Siloed Justices and the Law/Politics Divide<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/siloed-justices-and-lawpolitics-divide.html>

3. Jack Balkin, All Hail Ed Meese!<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/all-hail-ed-meese.html>

4. John O. McGinnis, The Supreme Court as the Aristocratic Element of a Mixed Regime<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-supreme-court-as-aristocratic.html>

5. Linda Greenhouse, The Company We No Longer Keep<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-company-we-no-longer-keep.html>

6. Frank Pasquale, The Political Theory of a Balanced Bench<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-political-theory-of-balanced-bench.html>

7. Sandy Levinson, Partisan Divisions in the Supreme Court: It’s Likely to Get Worse (and There’s No Reason to Think that it Will Necessarily Ever Get Better)<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/partisan-divisions-in-supreme-court-its.html>

8. Mark Graber, Newtonian and Anti-Newtonian Political and Judicial Polarization<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/newtonian-and-anti-newtonian-political.html>

9. Rick Pildes, What is Judicial Courage?<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/what-is-judicial-courage.html>

10. Neal Devins and Larry Baum, Justices and Their Audiences<http://balkin.blogspot.com/2019/04/justices-and-their-audiences.html>
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Posted in political parties<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, political polarization<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>, Scalia<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“What It Takes to Pull Off India’s Gargantuan Election”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104675>
Posted on April 15, 2019 7:29 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104675> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/world/asia/india-election-results.html>, with the subhead: “More than 900 million people — over 10 percent of the world’s population — could head to the polls over several weeks. The government is committed to polling every voter, no matter how isolated.”
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Posted in comparative election law<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=107>

“Trump’s Campaign Machine Has Two-Year Head Start”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104673>
Posted on April 14, 2019 1:38 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104673> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WSJ:<https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-campaign-machine-has-two-year-head-start-11555243200>

Before any well-known Democrats even began their White House bids, President Trump’s re-election team had spent more than $83 million on rallies, fundraising and other expenses associated with the thick of a heated race.

Mr. Trump set up his 2020 operation<https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-makes-quick-work-of-re-election-fundraising-1517515120?mod=article_inline> as he moved into the White House, the earliest start of any president in modern history. His three political committees raised more than $127 million between January 2017 and the end of last year, mostly from small donors, according to Federal Election Commission reports. But the PACs aren’t waiting for the general election to start spending, a Wall Street Journal analysis of FEC reports found.

By the end of Monday, 16 Democratic presidential candidates must file FEC reports on their first-quarter fundraising and spending. About half have already announced top-line numbers, led by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders<https://www.wsj.com/articles/bernie-sanders-raised-18-2-million-in-first-six-weeks-of-2020-presidential-campaign-11554214897?mod=article_inline>, who reported raising $18.2 million. Mr. Trump’s campaign and two related PACs called Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again, which also benefit the Republican Party, must also file first-quarter reports.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Arkansas GOP moves to keep progressive measures off the ballot—but not conservative ones”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104671>
Posted on April 14, 2019 1:35 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104671> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Daily Kos<https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/4/12/1849756/-Arkansas-GOP-passes-legislation-to-make-progressive-ballot-measures-harder-but-not-conservative-ones>:

Angry that voters passed a ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage<https://ballotpedia.org/Arkansas_Issue_5,_Minimum_Wage_Increase_Initiative_(2018)> in 2018, Arkansas Republicans are using their legislative majorities to put a constitutional amendment on the 2020<https://ballotpedia.org/Arkansas_Initiative_Process_and_Legislative_Referral_Requirements_Amendment_(2020)> ballot that would make it vastly harder for progressives—but not conservatives—to ever put a measure on the ballot again.

Currently, to put a measure on the ballot, organizers must gather a number of voter signatures equal to a certain percentage of the vote cast in the most recent election for governor (but never greater than 10%). They must also collect half that percentage in at least 15 of Arkansas’ 75 counties.

This new amendment, however, would increase that requirement to a majority of 45 counties. Given that Democrats and black voters are heavily concentrated<https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2016&fips=5&f=0&off=0&elect=0> in a few highly populated counties such as Pulaski (home of Little Rock) and in the rural Delta region, this provision would effectively require those backing progressive measures to gather a significant number of signatures from rural, conservative-dominated counties. Conservatives, however, would not have to do the same in urban, heavily Democratic areas.
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Posted in direct democracy<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>, Voting Rights Act<https://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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