"Court May Take Up Texas Redistricting"
Legal Times offers this
report (subscription required). (I don't have a subscription, so if
someone could e-mail this to me I would appreciate it.)
More Garrett on Hybrid Democracy
Beth Garrett has posted The
Promise and Perils of Hybrid Democracy (The Henry Lecture, University
of Oklahoma Law School, October 13, 2005) on SSRN. Here is the
abstract:
Abstract:
For most Americans, democracy in the United States is not entirely
representative in structure, and none of us lives in a pure direct
democracy where laws are made only through popular votes. Instead, for
over seventy percent of Americans, including those in Oklahoma,
government is a hybrid democracy - a combination of direct democracy
and representative institutions at the state and local levels, which in
turn influences national politics. Hybrid democracy is here to stay, so
we need to better understand how its components interact. But even if
we were writing on a clean slate and had the ability to choose between
a purely representative system and one with some elements of direct
democracy, I think we would do well to adopt some sort of hybrid. A
system that allows the possibility of the initiative and referendum
provides a check on elected representatives beyond the accountability
of periodic elections. In this Lecture, I will suggest some of the
benefits that a hybrid system can provide in three realms. First,
hybrid elections allow candidates to make more credible promises by
running on a platform that includes simultaneous enactment of
initiatives. The association of an initiative with a candidate may also
provide a richer information environment for voters, although recent
scholarship draws into question whether voting cues are invariably
enhanced by the strategic use of direct democracy by politicians.
Second, the initiative process provides a way to circumvent the
self-interest of legislators in designing institutions of government.
Third, the possibility of using initiatives to enact policy supplies
political actors with a tool that can serve majoritarian interests and
counter special interest influence in legislative bargaining. As
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is demonstrating in California,
governance by initiative profoundly changes the dynamics of interbranch
bargaining, although it does not seem to be a sustainable strategy if
used frequently. As I discuss these benefits, I will also underscore
the dangers of hybrid democracy and discuss reforms that seek to reduce
the perils while maximizing the promise of our hybrid system.
Proposed NY Legislation to Change the Counting of
Prisoners for Purposes of Districting
See this
Newsday report. Thanks to Joshua Spivak for the pointer.
"Ugly White Districts: What Should Sandy Do?"
Ethan Leib has posted this
paper on SSRN. The abstract:
Abstract:
A case recently decided by a three-judge panel in the Southern District
of New York, Rodriguez v. Pataki, where plaintiffs challenge the 2002
New York State Senate redistricting plan, presents a new kind of
redistricting dilemma. Rodriguez raises the issue of what to do about
bizarrely-shaped white districts that are constructed or preserved
using race as an obvious motivation - apparently in violation of Shaw
v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993), which held ugly black districts to be
violative of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause - but
are adjacent to majority-minority districts that must be preserved in
accordance with both Sections 2 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the
laws forbidding dilution and retrogression of majority-minority
districts. Here, I ask what Justice Sandra Day O'Connor should do about
unsightly majority white districts that are drawn principally to
maintain white majorities, even if such districts also help fashion
adjacent majority-minority districts required by the Voting Rights Act.
"Miers' Answer Raises Questions; Legal experts find a
misuse of terms in her Senate questionnaire 'terrible' and 'shocking.'"
The Los Angeles Times offers this
report, which is the most in depth look to date on Ms. Miers'
proportional representation/equal protection clause answer on the
questionnaire. It also discusses my views on what Miers' Dallas city
council experience says about how she could decide voting rights cases
if she is confirmed to the Court. In related news, the Dallas
Morning News offers Voting
rights fight a Miers highlight; Her stance evolved as she considered
new information, circumstances. See also my October 6 blog
post making these same points.
"Whose Speech is Free?"
Michael Kinsley offers this
interesting oped on, among other things, the New York Times's
editorial position on the Vermont spending limits case.
Mobile Register Again Editorializes Against
Renewing Voting Rights Act
According to the editorial,
"It's time to let Section 5 die, and thus parole the South from
punishment for its ignoble, distant past."