news of the day 1/14/05

Texas Redistricting Reply Briefs Due Today

I'll try to post briefs when they are sent to me, though soon I'll be off to the Direct Democracy conference in Irvine.

"Shelley OKs Testifying"

The Sacramento Bee offers this report.

"Key interest groups financed large part of hand recount"

The Seattle Times offers this report, which begins: "The unprecedented hand recount that put Gov. Christine Gregoire in office this week was paid for in large part with contributions from powerful interest groups, including labor unions, tribes and trial lawyers, which gave much more than they would have been allowed during the campaign." See also GOP Seeks Criminal Records, which begins: "Republicans want a copy of the state's criminal-records database to compare it with the names of the nearly 3 million people who voted in the governor's race, as party attorneys search for felons who cast illegal ballots"

"Supreme Court to Ponder Primary System"

The Edmond Sun offers this preview of Clingman v. Beaver, which will be argued next week in the U.S. Supreme Court (questions presented posted here; lower court opinion here.) The Medill School of Journalism offers this analysis. >From the Medill article: "If the decision stands, Columbia Law School Professor Richard Briffault speculates that it could drastically limit the ability of states to regulate primary elections. 'It is going to be hard for any state to enforce any primary rules in the face of a disagreeing party,' he said." Richard has also written a case preview of the case for the next issue of the Election Law Journal, which will be out later this month. My earlier blog coverage is here.

"Absentee Votes Need Tracking, Hood Says"

The Sun-Sentinel offers this report, which begins: "Florida's top election official told legislators on Thursday that the state should develop a tighter tracking system for absentee ballots."

A Call for Nonpartisan Election Administrators in Washington State

See this editorial in the News Tribune (Tacoma).

Public Financing on the Agenda in Washington State

See here.

Penn Law Symposium Available On Line

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review has published what I view as perhaps the best election law symposium yet, with articles on campaign finance, partisan gerrymanders, Voting Rights Act issues, false campaign speech, judicial campaign speech, political party rights, the California recall and other subjects. You can access the articles freely on line here. My own contribution to the symposium is an analysis of the Supreme Court's recent opinion upholding the constitutionality of BCRA (McCain-Feingold), Buckley is Dead, Long Live Buckley: The New Campaign Finance Incoherence of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 153 U. Pa. L. Rev. 31 (2004).

-- 
Professor Rick Hasen 
Loyola Law School 
919 Albany Street 
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211 
(213)736-1466 - voice 
(213)380-3769 - fax 
rick.hasen@lls.edu 
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html 
http://electionlawblog.org