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When the Supreme Court begins its October 2004 term, it will have the chance to take up a few very interesting election law cases.

First, there are the Texas redistricting cases up on appeal, meaning the Court must summarily affirm, reverse, or set the cases for argument. (A New York redistricting case, Rodriguez v. Pataki, is also before the Court).

Kentucky has petitioned for cert in a case raising the question whether the "express advocacy" test has any constitutional significance after McConnell. Stumbo v. Anderson, No. 04-103 (cert. petition from Anderson v. Spear, 356 F.3d 651 (6th Cir. 2004)).

Convicted felons challenging New York's felon disenfranishment law under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act have petitioned for cert in Muntaquim v. Coombe, 04-175 (below, 366 F.3d 102). Because the Second Circuit held there was no Section 2 violation, I think the Court is unlikely to take this case. It is more likely to take the Ninth Circuit or Eleventh Circuit cases (if cert. is sought in those cases), which held that a Section 2 violation is possible. The Ninth Circuit case featured a strong dissent from Judge Kozinski.

Important Campaign Finance Disclosure Case

On August 6, while I was gone, the Ninth Circuit decided ACLU of Nevada v. Heller, striking down a Nevada campaign finance disclosure law. The court expressly disagreed with the Seventh Circuit's opinion in Majors v. Abell upholding a similar Indiana statute.

This is a significant development, and indicate that not all courts will read the Supreme Court's opinion McConnell as a green light for disclosure laws in candidate elections. Nevada might have a fair chance of getting the Supreme Court to hear the case, given the circuit split now created.

In the Election Law Mailbag

While I was travelling, I received the following publications:

Campaign Legal Center, The Campaign Finance Guide.

Adam Cox, Commentary: Partisan Fairness and Redistricting Politics, 79 New York University Law Review 751 (2004)

Barry Hindess, Corruption and Democracy in Australia (part of the work of the Democratic Audit of Australia).

Raleigh Hannah Levine, The (Un)informed Electorate: Insights into the Supreme Court's Electoral Speech Cases, 54 Case Western University Law Review 225 (2003).

Michael Saxl and Maeghan Maloney, Essay, The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act: Unintended Consequences and the Maine Solution, 41 Harvard Journal on Legislation 465 (2004)

Christopher P. Zubowicz, The New Press Corps: Applying the Federal Election Campaign Act's Press Exemption to Online Political Speech, 9 Virginia Journal of Law and Technology 1 (2004) (eventually this should be posted here).

Pending Election Law Cases in the Supreme Court

Important Campaign Finance Disclosure Case

In the Election Law Mailbag

"Cast A Ballot from the Couch: Absentee Voting Gets Easier"