[EL] SCOTUS to hear census case in April; more news

Fri Feb 15 11:45:28 PST 2019

Supreme Court to Bypass Second Circuit, Hear Census Citizenship Question This Term, with Oral Argument in April<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103630>
Posted on February 15, 2019 11:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103630> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

You can find the unusual cert. grant before judgment order here<https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/021519zr_n6io.pdf>.

Here is what I wrote<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103337> when the government asked for this petition to be granted: “As for the merits, the plaintiffs should win given the strength of Judge Furman’s opinion. But this is a highly charged political case before a partisan-divided Supreme Court, though CJ Roberts is trying to keep the temperature down.”

And earlier I wrote<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103186>: “Justin suggests that would be procedurally irregular.<https://twitter.com/_justinlevitt_/status/1085260811545698304> But I’m not so sure. Yes DOJ has been running to SCOTUS a lot to try to get it to break its usual procedures and hear cases early. The Court has mostly rebuffed those requests. But not with the census, and for good reason. It seems to me that if the Court does not hear this case fully it would either (1) let plaintiffs run out the clock before the case gets full Court review or (2) the case gets decided as a stay, without a full SCOTUS opinion, on the so-called “shadow docket<https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1961&context=public_law_and_legal_theory>.” That’s really dissatisfying that we may get a dispositive SCOTUS ruling with no explanation. So I think things get expedited, and it would not be surprising for the normal schedules to be changed and contracted so that this all gets resolved by June (rendering other cases involving the census moot).”
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Posted in Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“‘Point person’ for Texas secretary of state in controversial voter fraud inquiry quits”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103628>
Posted on February 15, 2019 9:59 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103628> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Dallas Morning News<https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas-politics/2019/02/14/point-person-texas-secretary-state-controversial-voter-fraud-inquiry-quits>:

Betsy Schonhoff, whom newly disclosed emails depict as the secretary of state’s office’s honcho of a nearly yearlong effort to match voter lists with databases at the Department of Public Safety, quit recently with no explanation, a spokesman for interim Secretary of State David Whitley said late Thursday.

“Betsy Schonhoff resigned last week after working at the Secretary of State’s office since 2012, and she didn’t provide any reason for her resignation,” Whitley spokesman Sam Taylor said in an email.

“She served as our Voter Registration Manager and we did not have any discussions with her about her resignation or her performance before she resigned.”
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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“Mississippi Felons Seeking Voting Rights Win Class Status”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103626>
Posted on February 15, 2019 7:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103626> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

USLW:<https://news.bloomberglaw.com/class-action/mississippi-felons-seeking-voting-rights-win-class-status>

Mississippi convicted felons won class status Feb. 13 in their suit to have their voting rights restored.
The state’s argument that class certification lacks utility has “practical appeal, but it finds no foothold in Rule 23’s text,” Judge Daniel P. Jordan III wrote for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 governs class actions.
The class includes tens of thousands of people convicted under Mississippi law and no longer incarcerated, attorney for the plaintiffs Jonathan Youngwood told Bloomberg Law. Youngwood is a partner in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s New York office.
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Posted in felon voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>

“The online voting revolution is here — how are we going to be able to trust it?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103624>
Posted on February 15, 2019 7:42 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103624> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Steven Rosenfeld writes<https://www.salon.com/2019/02/14/the-online-voting-revolution-is-here-how-are-we-going-to-be-able-to-trust-it_partner/>.

--
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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