[EL] The Jan. 6 committee, “alternate slates” of electors, and the scope of the Select Committee’s investigation

Sat Jan 29 11:28:09 PST 2022

Is it within the Committee’s remit to investigate non-violent opposition to the presidential election result? Is the general opposition to recognizing the election result sufficiently related to the violence that the committee ought to be investigating it — that is, is the committee’s charge generally to investigate the opposition to recognizing the election results?

These “alternate slates” were illegitimate, and represented reprehensible active opposition to and an attempt to reverse the outcome. But that is quite different from storming the Capitol or advocating violence (or bribing or threatening electors or members of Congress). Of course it’s also different from writing an op-ed or in other ways arguing that the result wasn’t legitimate — undoubtedly protected 1st Amendment expression.

The “alternate electors” acted openly. It was up to Congress — at least as commonly understood, though limited by the ECA if it is constitutional and in some way enforceable — to  decide who to recognize as electors. So one could argue that these people were addressing their claims to the body entitled to consider them.

Here is a link to the text of H. Res. 503, which created the committee (the “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol”)   and states its charge: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/503/text. I haven’t analyzed it completely. Parts of it are rather vague. Section 3, the “Purposes” section, seems narrow; section 4, the “Functions” section, seems to be broader.

It would be troubling if Congress could set up committees with broad powers to subpoena witnesses and to obtain information from the CIA, FBI, NSA, etc. in order to investigate the political opposition. This case is of course far different from the usual case of political opposition, but perhaps we should think a little about the precedent that may be set, if the investigation sweeps broadly beyond matters closely connected to the Jan. 6 violence.

Mark

Prof. Mark S. Scarberry
Pepperdine University
Rick J. Caruso School of Law
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From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2022 8:33:32 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] FW: Election Law Blog: ELB News and Commentary

________________________________
From: Election Law Blog <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2022 8:32:12 AM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
To: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
Subject: Election Law Blog: ELB News and Commentary

Arizona Republic: Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan says he will not turn over records from the review of Maricopa County's 2020 election until he has a “clear” ruling he can appeal to the highest court.Logan answered questions during… Continue reading
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Election Law Blog: ELB News and Commentary
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Arizona: “Cyber Ninjas CEO participates in contentious deposition, says he’s not ready to turn over audit records”<https://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=183612662&f=1116553&c=8168026&u=102231511>
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Arizona Republic<https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1116553/102231511/8168026_/~www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2022/01/28/cyber-ninjas-ceo-doug-logan-not-ready-to-turn-over-arizona-audit-records/9248990002/?utm_source=azcentral-AZ%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=baseline_greeting&utm_term=newsletter_greeting&utm_content=1531AR-E-NLETTER02>: Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan says he will not turn over records from the review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election until he has a “clear” ruling he can appeal to the highest court.Logan answered questions during… Continue reading <https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1116553/102231511/8168026_/~electionlawblog.org/?p=127256>

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Direct any pitches and comments to him. Thanks!

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