"Restoring the Right to Vote"

The NY Times offers this editorial, which begins: "In his few remaining days in office, Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia has an opportunity to strike a blow for democracy with the stroke of a pen by restoring the right to vote to more than 240,000 felons who are now out of prison. This is manifestly the right thing to do. Mr. Warner, who is likely to be a presidential candidate in 2008, should not let political considerations deter him because taking a principled stand in favor of ex-prisoners' voting rights would only augment his reputation."

Update on Rosemead Recall Election Litigation

See here.

More Texas Briefs

Law Professors Rick Pildes, Sam Issacharoff, and Burt Neuborne have filed this amicus brief on their own behalf, making the political competition argument under Article I and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. This should be interesting not only for the Texas case, but also for those of us interested in the academic debate over the use of the competition principle in election law jurisprudence.

Law professor Mitch Berman, who has also written some interesting articles about redistricting co-authored this amicus brief arguing that the Texas redistricting is unconstitutional.

New book on European Electoral Law

The Council of Europe has published European standards of electoral law in contemporary constitutionalism (Science and Technique of Democracy No. 39) (2006). The book's description:

This volume includes the reports presented at the seminar on "European standards of electoral law in contemporary constitutionalism” organised by the Venice Commission in co-operation with the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria in Sofia (Bulgaria), on 28 and 29 May 2004.
Electoral law and co-operation with constitutional courts and courts of equivalent jurisdiction have been two of the main areas of the activities of the Venice Commission since its creation in 1990. However, this is the first time that the Commission has organised an activity of such a high level focusing on the role played by constitutional justice in the electoral process.
The reports cover such fundamental issues as the advantages and shortcomings of different electoral systems, the case law of higher national courts on electoral disputes, the participation of foreigners in the electoral process at the local level, the electoral rights of individuals having the citizenship of other European countries and the possible development of electoral law within the European Union.

Important Campaign Finance Argument before Supreme Court One Week from Today

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Wisconsin Right to LIfe v. FEC, potentially a very important campaign finance case (likely more important than the Vermont spending limits cases to be argued next month). I have prepared a preview of the case for the ABA's Supreme Court Preview (paid subscription required). My copyright agreement will allow me to post the preview for non-subscribers on the day of oral argument.

Bob Bauer offers these reflections on the filed briefs.

-- 
Rick Hasen 
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
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