[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/18/19

Mon Nov 18 07:35:28 PST 2019

“‘No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108121>
Posted on November 18, 2019 7:31 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108121> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/us/polls-media-fake-news.html>

The decline in confidence is particularly pronounced by party. Today<https://news.gallup.com/poll/267047/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx> about 69 percent of Democrats have a great deal of confidence in the media, compared to just 15 percent of Republicans and 36 percent of independents, according to Gallup.
Conservatives are less trusting because they are suspicious of the liberal establishment and the media that they see coming from it, said Stephen Hawkins, director of research at More in Common, a nonprofit group studying polarization.
“On the right you have this feeling that the cultural tide has swung against people like me,” said Mr. Hawkins, who grew up evangelical. “There’s this sense of victimhood toward government, media and academia. ‘These people have contempt for us, if not downright hatred, and so cannot be a reliable witness for what we are seeing day to day.’”
Mr. Pomerantsev argues that news avoidance cuts across political lines and that the concept of left and right no longer fits. In Russia, it had more to do with the loss of national identity and a larger story of progress that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Posted in social media and social protests<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=58>

“Census counting of prisoners becomes partisan battleground”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108119>
Posted on November 18, 2019 7:22 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108119> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP:<https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/census-counting-of-prisoners-becomes-partisan-battleground/>

When the U.S. Census Bureau counts residents of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods next year, a significant portion of their population will be missing: prisoners.

For these predominantly black areas, with incarceration rates among the highest in the nation, the government’s longstanding policy to count inmates as residents of the prison where they are held diminishes their political power back home.

“When you undercount people for the census, they end up losing in that community dollars that could go toward services that can help remediate poverty,” said state Rep. David Bowen, a Milwaukee Democrat co-sponsoring legislation to end what critics call prison gerrymandering.

Democrats argue the system shifts resources from traditionally liberal urban centers — home to many inmates who are disproportionately black and Hispanic — to rural, white, Republican-leaning areas where prisons are usually located.
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Posted in census litigation<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=125>, felon voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>

“Possible pay-to-play scheme for ambassador role in Trump administration uncovered by CBS News”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108117>
Posted on November 18, 2019 7:18 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108117> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CBS News:<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doug-manchester-possible-pay-to-play-scheme-for-ambassador-role-in-trump-administration-uncovered/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab8d&linkId=77245013>

A CBS News investigation has uncovered a possible pay-for-play scheme involving the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the Bahamas. Emails obtained by CBS News show the nominee, San Diego billionaire Doug Manchester, was asked by the RNC to donate half a million dollars as his confirmation in the Senate hung in the balance, chief investigative correspondent Jim Axelrod reports….
A Trump supporter, Manchester donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. He was offered the Bahamas post the day after Mr. Trump was sworn in. Manchester said Trump told him, “I should probably be the ambassador to the Bahamas and you should be president.”
Then, for two and a half years, Manchester’s nomination stalled in the Senate.
His Bahamas relief trip caught the attention of the President. Trump tweeted<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_realdonaldtrump_status_1170285514324414464-3Flang-3Den&d=DwMFaQ&c=jGUuvAdBXp_VqQ6t0yah2g&r=SnKNl-24bf16SWDFCit7MuB4WNL2-l3pJnZ1bzs3MW0&m=oJ7xMx8MrXUOLxNU9IlLXLTuxzY4BwiICfFj7p29B9c&s=O1jYQpBAATXQpkpH0v5bbs3brDFuaYCzdtMj9Qvv4wQ&e=>, “I would also like to thank ‘Papa’ Doug Manchester, hopefully the next Ambassador to the Bahamas, for the incredible amount of time, money and passion he has spent on helping to bring safety to the Bahamas.”
Three days after the tweet, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel hit up Manchester for a donation. It was no small sum. In an email, obtained exclusively by CBS News, she asked Manchester, “Would you consider putting together $500,000 worth of contributions from your family to ensure we hit our ambitious fundraising goal?”…

The Senate confirmation process is exactly what Manchester quickly addressed. He wrote back to McDaniel’s request for $500,000, “As you know I am not supposed to do any, but my wife is sending a contribution for $100,000. Assuming I get voted out of the [Foreign Relations Committee] on Wednesday to the floor we need you to have the majority leader bring it to a majority vote … Once confirmed, I our [sic] family will respond!” …

Even worse, he said, was Manchester’s response. His big mistake was copying staffers of two senators who controlled his nomination, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Idaho’s Jim Risch,  alerting them to his willingness to donate more after confirmation.

“I can only tell you that if I received an email like that, there would have been a five-bell alarm that went off,” Corker said.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

Supreme Court Takes No Action Again on Major Campaign Finance Petition<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108115>
Posted on November 18, 2019 7:05 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108115> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
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 · Nov 15, 2019<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1195417602396286976>
<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1195417602396286976>

No word on the campaign finance petition at #SCOTUS<https://twitter.com/hashtag/SCOTUS?src=hash> today. It could be denied in orders issued Monday, or held over later for future action. https://twitter.com/KimberlyRobinsn/status/1195416618991575040 …<https://t.co/gM5PTyF9Za>
<https://twitter.com/KimberlyRobinsn/status/1195416618991575040>
Kimberly Robinson<https://twitter.com/KimberlyRobinsn/status/1195416618991575040>
✔@KimberlyRobinsn<https://twitter.com/KimberlyRobinsn/status/1195416618991575040>

3 new #SCOTUS grants today, including Oracle’s $8 billion bid for royalties from Google for using copyrighted programming code (No 18-956). Background: https://bnanews.bna.com/tech-and-telecom-law/u-s-lawyers-urge-high-court-to-reject-google-copyright-appeal?context=search&index=4 …<https://twitter.com/KimberlyRobinsn/status/1195416618991575040>

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Rick Hasen<https://twitter.com/rickhasen>
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Supreme Court takes no action yet again on major campaign finance petition. Court could eventually grant, or, perhaps at this point more likely now would be either some kind of summary action or a dissent from denial of cert. from one or more Justices.
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7:01 AM - Nov 18, 2019<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1196443290263908352>
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My earlier coverage<https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/campaign-finance-supreme-court/594751/> at The Atlantic.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“The Democracy Doomsayers Consider 2020; Comparative politics didn’t used to be a best-selling topic that got people booked on cable news. That was before Trump.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108113>
Posted on November 17, 2019 9:20 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108113> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT reports.<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/16/us/politics/democracy-predictions.html>
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Was Antonin Scalia ‘The Justice of Contradictions’? Rick Hasen explains”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108111>
Posted on November 17, 2019 9:05 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108111> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The San Francisco Review of Book’s Joseph Cotto interviewed me<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8EeWRPrNjI> about my book on Justice Scalia’s jurisprudence and legacy. Watch:
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Posted in Scalia<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“North Carolina lawmakers OK new 2020 congressional maps. Now it’s up to the courts.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108108>
Posted on November 15, 2019 4:08 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108108> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News and Observer:<https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article237398119.html>

The Republican-led North Carolina Senate approved a new congressional district map Friday to be used in 2020 that is likely to shrink the GOP’s edge in the state’s congressional delegation.
But Democrats plan to challenge the map in court again.
The map passed the N.C. House on Thursday, part of a swift process completed with the Dec. 2 opening of the filing period for congressional candidates in mind. Lawmakers drew the new map after a three-judge panel indicated it was likely to toss the previous map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The map passed the Senate on a party line vote<https://www.ncleg.gov/Legislation/Votes/RollCallVoteTranscript/2019/S/660>….

The Senate debate lasted more than an hour with Republican Sen. Jerry Tillman complaining that Republicans were having to redraw the districts in the first place.

“For 140 years, you all drew the maps,” he said toward Democrats. “You drew them for 140 years, we sat there and didn’t like it, but we took it. … We’re doing exactly what you all did for 140 years and it was constitutionally OK.”

Update: Plaintiffs have already filed their objections <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5beeefdbf407b4c074e45ec6/t/5dcf1ecbd251b529c9204ec3/1573854923782/Plaintiffs+Brief+on+Remedial+Process.pdf> to this new plan. I expect we will see Nate Persily drawing maps. (Unlike the last time, where the court went along with the new lines, this one passed on a party line vote.)
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>

--
Rick Hasen
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UC Irvine School of Law
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