<x-flowed>All,
As one of the named members of the alleged liberal "cabal" that once held
sway at DOJ, I find the comments submitted by the Lonely Centrist pretty
unpersuasive. I am especially tickled by the fact that he or she found it
necessary to reach way back to a job I had my second year out of law school
("when I was young and didn't know any better"), back in the 1970s (!).
Seriously though, three points .... First, I'm not troubled by the
anonymity; this is an issue that should be discussed on its merits. In that
regard, secondly, if the folks in the Voting Section have secretly been on a
crusade to make Section 5 decisions that favor the Democrats, how do you
square that with the fact that the career staff were the originators of
numerous objection recommendations in the early 1990s to redistricting plans
when, it has been alleged by some, the Republican Assistant Attorney
General's decisions to interpose those same objections were motivated by
partisan political interests? (I don't agree that that was his motivation,
but that doesn't alter my point.) Thirdly, I agree with the LC that the
career staff generally has been partial and interested (i.e., not impartial
and disinterested) -- partial and interested in enforcing the Voting Rights
Act and other civil rights laws in the manner we, in good faith, believed
was intended by Congress (one could, also in good faith, disagree with our
interpretations, but that would not make our interpretations somehow
illegitimate).
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Hasen"
<Rick.Hasen@lls.edu>
To: "election-law"
<election-law@majordomo.lls.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 11:30 AM
Subject: Electionlawblog news and commentary 1/27/06
AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project; Kickoff Event with Sen. Obama
AEI and Brookings have teamed for a new election reform project. Among the
project's goals are to:
Establish links among voting research projects, synthesize findings, and
make findings accessible to the broad policy community
Ensure that research and policy recommendations are fed into the policy
process in a timely and productive fashion
Assemble a working group of experts to think through the substance and
politics of a practical policy agenda
Develop a bipartisan, practical national policy agenda for election
reform and monitor the implementation of HAVA and its proposed amendments
See also this press release.
The Center has set up what looks to be a very useful website. The kickoff
event (details here) will feature a keynote address by Senator Barack
Obama, and two panels (I'll be on the second panel).
This project should be very useful in bringing together academics and
policymakers who are serious about real election reform.
"Politicizing Justice"
The Lonely Centrist has this provocative post responding to the latest
Washington Post article on politics in the voting rights section of the
Justice Department. After discussing the careers of many of the former DOJ
lawyers who have left and now criticized the department, the Lonely
Centrist concludes: "None of this is to say that these folks are wrong on
the merits in the current dispute. But let's not have a bunch of
dewey-eyed odes to the impartial civil servants of the Voting Rights
Section." It would be nice to be able to look at the career path of the
Lonely Centrist as well to ferret out any potential bias. But we can't,
because he or she chooses to blog anonymously. To paraphrase Justice
Scalia from his dissent in McIntyre, "I can imagine no reason why an
anonymous [blog post] is any more honorable, as a general matter, than an
anonymous phone call or an anonymous letter. It facilitates wrong by
eliminating accountability, which is ordinarily the very purpose of the
anonymity."
"Governor should hold to promise of reform"
Mike Alvarez, Caltech professor and contributor to the Election Updates
blog, has this column in the Pasadena Star News.
"Dan Walters: Political reform again in vogue, but history bodes ill for
'clean money'"
Dan Walters writes this Sacramento Bee column. [Disclosure: I have been
working as a consultant for the California Nurses Association in relation
to the proposed initiative discussed in this column.]
"Growing Role for Lobbyists:Raising Funds for Lawmakers"
The Wall Street Journal offers this front page report. Thanks to Steven
Sholk for the pointer. The article includes a very interesting graphic on
campaign contributions given by lobbyists to lawmakers, based on data from
the Center for Responsive Politics. See also this Washington Post report
and this Bob Bauer commentary.
"The Voting Rights Act and the Future of California Democracy"
This event will be held at the University of Southern California on
February 4. See also this agenda.
"The people's choice: 17th Amendment was not a mistake"
The Salt Lake City Tribune offers this editorial.
"Ariz. Supreme Court tells Smith to vacate office; Representative says
it's 'unlikely' he'll appeal to U.S. Supreme Court"
The Arizona Republic offers this report, which begins: "State Rep. David
Burnell Smith's tumultuous year in the Legislature came to an abrupt end
Thursday when the Arizona Supreme Court upheld his removal from office for
violating spending limits in his publicly funded election campaign. The
high court's action leaves Smith, R-Carefree, as the first lawmaker in the
nation removed from office for violating a public campaign funding system.
He also becomes the first state lawmaker in the nation to be tossed out
through a procedure other than recall, impeachment or a criminal
conviction."
"Voter ID bill approved; Opponents vow to continue fight"
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers this report. Expect a motion to
dismiss the pending voter id case in the federal courts on mootness gounds
soon. Voter i.d. laws are also now on the agenda in Minnesota.
--
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
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