[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/24/19

Tue Apr 23 20:30:44 PDT 2019

“Jared Kushner Dismisses Russian Election Interference as ‘Couple of Facebook Ads’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104820>
Posted on April 23, 2019 8:28 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104820> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/us/politics/jared-kushner-facebook-ads.html>:

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, dismissed Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign on Tuesday as a “couple of Facebook ads” and said the investigation of it was far more damaging to the country than the intrusion itself.
“You look at what Russia did — you know, buying some Facebook ads to try to sow dissent and do it — and it’s a terrible thing,” Mr. Kushner said during a panel sponsored by Time magazine. “But I think the investigations, and all of the speculation that’s happened for the last two years, has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads.”

“Quite frankly, the whole thing is just a big distraction for the country,” Mr. Kushner said in his first public comments since the release of the report of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, last week.
Facebook estimated that Russia-backed ads and social media

posts reached 126 million Americans<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/technology/facebook-google-russia.html?module=inline> during the election, only about 10 million fewer than voted in 2016. Moreover, Russians hacked accounts of the Democratic National Committee and leaked damaging information about Mr. Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, at critical moments during the campaign.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“The Supreme Court Is Poised to Shred Its Credibility to Let Trump Rig the Census”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104818>
Posted on April 23, 2019 8:19 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104818> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mark Joseph Stern:<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/supreme-court-census-case-citizenship-question.html>

What’s startling about Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch’s questions in particular is that they seem to betray fundamental principles of the court’s conservative bloc. Gorsuch has disclaimed reliance<https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4662743/judge-gorsuch-international-law> on international law, proclaiming: “We have our own tradition and our own history. And I don’t know why we would look to the experience of other countries rather than to our own when everybody else looks to us.” Kavanaugh, echoing a Republican mantra<https://slate.com/technology/2014/11/alabama-foreign-law-amendment-challenges-supreme-court-on-gay-rights-death-penalty-sharia-law.html>, has argued<https://www.lawfareblog.com/judge-brett-kavanaugh-national-security-readers-guide> that international law has virtually no role in the American legal system outside of treaties. (Even more disturbingly, the two justices seem to have derived their international law questions from an amicus brief<https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-966/90873/20190306124056434_EFELDF%2018-966%20Census%20Amicus.pdf> filed by Eagle Forum, a fringe reactionary group founded by Phyllis Schlafly.)

Meanwhile, Roberts, who seemed so deeply concerned about the Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, has written<https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96> and joined opinions<https://www.scotusblog.com/2018/06/opinion-analysis-texas-scores-near-complete-victory-on-redistricting/> gutting it of its force. And deference to executive agencies? Seriously? The contemporary conservative judicial philosophy<https://takecareblog.com/blog/the-imminent-demise-of-chevron-deference>, touted by Gorsuch<https://www.scotusblog.com/2017/03/roots-limits-gorsuchs-views-chevron-deference/>and Kavanaugh<https://www.hoover.org/research/kavanaugh-and-chevron-doctrine>, is rooted in opposition<https://www.theregreview.org/2018/09/03/barnett-boyd-walker-kavanaugh-chevron-deference-supreme-court/> to agency deference. Yet the conservative justices want to defer to an unelected bureaucrat’s manipulation<https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/neil-gorsuch-trump-census-lawsuit.html> of the census. A greater hypocrisy is difficult to envision.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Roundup of Stories on the Census Citizenship Case<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104816>
Posted on April 23, 2019 8:16 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104816> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Howard’<https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com/2019/04/23/#90827>s got it.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Seattle Campaign Finance Voucher Use Up in Second Election Cycle<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104814>
Posted on April 23, 2019 8:13 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104814> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Analysis<https://www.sightline.org/2019/04/23/seattles-democracy-voucher-program-is-already-sparking-a-lively-election-season/> from Sightline.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

The Solicitor General’s Chutzpah in the Census Oral Argument<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104812>
Posted on April 23, 2019 12:38 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104812> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sasha Samberg Champion:
View image on Twitter<https://twitter.com/ssamcham/status/1120754053573685250/photo/1>
[View image on Twitter]<https://twitter.com/ssamcham/status/1120754053573685250/photo/1>
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/828987011340042241/xVOoYATP_bigger.jpg]<https://twitter.com/ssamcham>
<https://twitter.com/ssamcham>
Sasha Samberg-Champion at ssamcham<https://twitter.com/ssamcham>

<https://twitter.com/ssamcham/status/1120754053573685250>

It's just perfect that SG--having gotten Supreme Court to block plaintiffs in Census case from deposing Secy Ross as to his intent, as purportedly not relevant--relies heavily on the lack of evidence as to Secretary Ross's intent. Circle squared, with SCOTUS as the accomplice.
<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1120754053573685250>
177<https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1120754053573685250>
11:19 AM - Apr 23, 2019<https://twitter.com/ssamcham/status/1120754053573685250>
<https://twitter.com/ssamcham/status/1120754053573685250>
125 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/ssamcham/status/1120754053573685250>

Twitter Ads info and privacy<https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175256>
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

Read the Transcript in Today’s Supreme Court Argument on the Citizenship Question on the Census<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104810>
Posted on April 23, 2019 12:13 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104810> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

It is here<https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2018/18-966_i4dj.pdf>.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, Supreme Court<https://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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