| Subject: news of the day 5/27/05 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 5/27/2005, 9:25 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Sacramento Bee offers this
report,
which begins: "The Assembly passed legislation Thursday to limit the
sums that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state politicians can
raise for ballot-measure committees they control. AB 709, by
Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, would not take effect unless it
passes the Senate, is signed by the governor and is approved by state
voters." In somewhat related news, A.P. reports Arnold
Raises $2 Million Out of State.
In the last two posts, you will see that I have enabled comments. By clicking on comments at the bottom of the post, you can add your own thoughts on one of my posts. I plan to do this from time to time, if I find that the comments are being used productively and that the discussion remains civil. (I reserve the right to delete comments I believe are unproductive or uncivil.)
For those who read my blog posts on the election law listserv, it
will be necessary to visit the blog to post a comment.
With the Supreme Court having issued its decision in Clingman v. Beaver, I thought it would be useful to list election law cases I'm watching for eventual resolution by the Supreme Court:
Landell v. Sorell This is the Second Circuit case that strongly suggests candidate expenditure limits may be consistitutional, despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Buckley v. Valeo. Plaintiffs recently filed a cert. petition. My earlier coverage is here.
Wisconsin Right to Life This is the "as-applied" challenge to the corporate expenditure limits in BCRA. This case is on appeal to the Supreme Court, so the Court eventually will have to rule, either summarily or by setting the case for argument. I predict a summary affirmance, with some dissents. My earlier coverage is here.
The Florida felon disenfranchisement case There is a split between the circuits over whether a ban on felon disenfranchisement violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act given a racially discriminatory effect. I had wrongly predicted the Supreme Court would take either the case from the Second or Ninth Circuits. Now the Eleventh Circuit has sided with the second in Johnson v. Bush in holding there is no VRA violation. You can find my earlier coverage of on the Florida case here. I don't believe a petition for cert has been filed yet.
The Texas Re-redistricting cases A three judge court in Texas heard arguments in the Texas re-redistricting case on January 21. The delay likely means there will be more than one opinion. This case will eventually be appealed to the Supreme Court, where we might then learn whether there will be a standard that a Court majority will embrace to judge when partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. How might that happen? Justice Kennedy might make up his mind, or one of the members of the plurality (Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, and Thomas) could retire, to be replaced by a Justice who would take a different position on these issues. My earlier coverage is here.
Any other cases we in the election law field should watch closely? I
have enabled comments.
Unlike Ed Still, I don't regularly cover "politicians in trouble." But there has been so much news lately in this area, I thought I'd link to some of the more prominent coverage:
TRMPAC/DeLay: The New York Times offers Treasurer of Texas Group is Fined Nearly $200,000, which begins: "A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that the treasurer of a political action committee formed by United States Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, broke campaign finance laws as the group propelled the party into power in the Texas House in 2002." You can find the judge's ruling here.
Tennessee corruption probe: The New York Times offers U.S. Indicts 4 Tennessee Lawmakers in Corruption Case, which begins: "Four members of the Tennessee legislature, including a member of the Ford family dynasty in Memphis, were indicted on Thursday after a two-year undercover operation by the F.B.I. whose outcome has rattled the state's political establishment. Among those indicted was State Senator John N. Ford, one of the most powerful politicians in Memphis, who was charged with extorting $55,000 from a bogus company created by the bureau. He was also indicted on three counts of threatening to shoot or kill anyone he suspected was an F.B.I. agent or was trying to set him up."
The Hiliary Clinton fundraiser trial: A.P. offers Jury Gets Case in Ex-Clinton Aide Trial, which begins: "Jurors began deliberations Thursday in the trial of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former finance director, who is charged with lying to the government about the cost of an extravagant 2000 Hollywood fundraising gala. Jurors deliberated for four hours without reaching a verdict in the case against ex-Clinton aide David Rosen. Deliberations were to resume Friday."
Jesse Jackson and the Democrats: The Chicago Tribune offers Democrats, Jackson fined $200,000 by FEC, which begins: "Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance law when Jackson used Rainbow/PUSH Coalition funds to travel the country in 2000 drumming up voter registration and staging get-out-the-vote rallies, according to a Federal Election Commission decision released Thursday. Under an agreement with the FEC, Jackson, two of his organizations, Rainbow/PUSH and the Citizen Education Fund, and the Democratic committee were levied a $200,000 fine.
A trend, or just a coincidence? I have enabled comments.
-- Rick Hasen William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law Loyola Law School 919 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