| Subject: news of the day 4/19/04 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 4/19/2004, 7:37 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Supreme Court refused to hear the case involving the re-redistricting in Texas. See this A.P. report. Here is the order list.
This was a summary affirmance, without any opinion or dissents, which is authority that the lower court reached the right result, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
What does this mean for the pending Vieth case (the partisan redistricting case out of Pennsylvania)? I can't see this as good news for plaintiffs. If Vieth was going to breathe new life into partisan gerrymandering claims, as plaintiffs requested, a more likely remedy in the Texas case would have been to send the case back to the lower court for reconsideration in light of the new standard.
We may see an opinion in Vieth as early as tomorrow. I had
been predicting an opinion in March or April. (Of course, I was wrong
about when the BCRA opinion would issue, predicting the end of October
when it in fact came out in December.)
The Boston Globe offers this
editorial, which ends: "But the FEC should move quickly to close
the 527 loophole."
The Los Angeles Times has published my latest oped,
which begins:
But today, money seems just as firmly entrenched in politics as ever. Wealthy corporate executives around the country are competing to become "Rangers" for President Bush's reelection committee by raising more than $200,000 in $2,000 chunks from friends and business associates. George Soros recently gave $10 million to liberal groups to fund their anti-Bush ads. Wealthy candidates — the John Corzines and Michael Huffingtons of the world — are still allowed to self-finance their races if they choose to, in some cases buying their way into serious contention in elections in which they would otherwise stand no chance.
-- Rick Hasen Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow Loyola Law School 919 South Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlawblog.org