| Subject: Electionlawblog news and commentary 2/6/06 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 2/6/2006, 6:29 AM |
| To: election-law |
In this
NY Times book review, Kathleen Sullivan discusses, among
other things, Justice Breyer's views on campaign finance regulation.
Allison Hayward comments.
The Sacramento Bee offers this
report, which begins: "More than 40 campaign committees spent about
$317 million on eight ballot measures in a California special election
that produced no new policy but fattened the bottom lines of television
stations, petition-gathering firms, direct mail experts and political
consultants."
Political Wire offers this
interesting report. Following on the heels of Wikipedia-gate,
I expect someone to start calling for politicians to pledge not to
mislead voters via the Internet.
Norm Ornstein ofers this
Argument column in Legal Affairs, with the subhead:
"Jack Abramoff's guilty plea has made corrupt lobbying a very big
story. Where were the media when coverage might have curbed the sleaze?"
CNSNews reports
that "Fifty-six members of the U.S. House on Friday urged House
Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), to fight the
renewal of a provision in the Voting Rights Act that mandates
multilingual ballots." It remains to be seen whether this opposition
would be enough to derail the expected renewal of this provision of the
Voting Rights Act, which comes up for renewal along with the
preclearance provisions. At this point, renewal appears the most likely
course.
See this
report, originally appearing in the Dallas Morning News.
See this
post on Human Events Online.
Monday's Heard on
the Hill column in Roll Call (paid subscription required)
explains that the reason for the confusion over the number of ballots
during the recent Republican leadership election: "A recount was
ordered after the official vote counters realized they had more ballots
than GOP Members--or so they thought. They knew they had a man out,
namely Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.), who was undergoing shoulder
surgery. So confusion reigned when 231 ballots---the exact number of
House Republicans--were returned. The recount was already done by the
time it became clear what had happened. Whoops--- they forgot about
Del. Luis Fortuno, the Republican delegate from Puerto Rico who, though
he can’t vote on the floor, can vote within the Conference. His vote
made 231." According to the report, some suggested that Katherine
Harris, a member of the caucus, could offer her services in counting.
New York State assembly member Michael Gianaris offers this
oped in the New York Times. It begins: "THE decennial
process of Congressional redistricting is fundamental to a functioning
democracy. But unfortunately it is often abused for partisan purposes."
The following announcement arrived via e-mail:
Martha Nussbaum is among the most distinguished figures in law and philosophy today, teaching and writing across a wide range of fascinating fields and possessing one of the most powerful voices in the public arena for the continued meaning and significance of the humanities. She is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, holding appointments in the Philosophy Department, Law School and Divinity School. Among her many publications are The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (1986, updated edition 2000), Love's Knowledge (1990), The Therapy of Desire (1994), Poetic Justice (1996), For Love of Country (1996), Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education (1997), Sex and Social Justice (1998), Women and Human Development (2000), Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions (2001), and Hiding From
Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (2004). Her new book, Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership, will be published by Harvard University Press in fall 2005. She received the Brandeis Creative Arts Award in Non-Fiction for 1990, and the PEN Spielvogel-Diamondstein Award for the best collection of essays in 1991; Cultivating Humanity won the Ness Book Award of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 1998, and the Grawemeyer Award in Education in 2002.Sex and Social Justice won the book award of the North American Society for Social Philosophy in 2000. Hiding From Humanity won the Association of American University Publishers Professional and Scholarly Book Award for Law in 2004.
The lecture is free of charge, however seating is limited and reservations are required. Please log on to www.usc.edu/esvp to reserve your seat, and use # 2525 as your ESVP code.
More Information, please contact the Office of Protocol and University Events, (213) 740-1744.
See this press release from the Brennan Center, which begins: "Today, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, along with co-counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to review Avery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co.. The case involves an Illinois Supreme Court justice who declined to recuse himself, and then ruled for one of his biggest campaign contributors. The brief was filed on behalf of 12 organizations committed to ensuring fair and impartial courts." You can find a copy of the brief here.
-- 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