"A Small-Time Crime With Hints of Big-Time Connections Lights Up the Net"

Adam Cohen offers this Editorial Observer column in the NY Times on the New Hampshire phone-jamming case.

"House: Fundraising Continues at Record-Setting Pace"

CQPolitics.com offers this report. Also on the fundraising topic, the Washington Post offers Clinton Sets Bar for '08 Funds; Senator Has $20 Million for Reelection, Possible Presidential Bid.

"Loma Linda group to circulate revised petition"

The Riverside Press-Enterprise offers this report. A snippet: "The group's original initiative, which would have required a vote of the public to change the general plan and set minimum lot sizes throughout the city, was disqualified by a federal judge in March on grounds it did not include a Spanish translation as required under the Voting Rights Act. In an e-mail Monday, Save Loma Linda spokeswoman Kathy Glendrange said the new initiative has been translated into Spanish. Save Loma Linda member Ovidiu Popescu had said the 30-page document was expected to cost about $80 per page to translate."

Another view of the Indiana Voter ID decision

Following up on this post, Brett Bellmore writes via e-email:

I've now had a chance to read the ruling, and it does not appear to be based on the judge's belief that ID fraud is a more serious problem than absentee ballot fraud, but instead his (I think quite reasonable) belief that the whole question of which is more serious is utterly irrelevant, since the legislature is perfectly entitled as a constitutional matter to address small problems, and leave big problems untouched.

I tend to agree that absentee ballot fraud is the bigger problem. On the other hand, that also means that it has more defenders, and going after it will be a bigger fight. Maybe voter ID will be a good warmup for that battle royal.

Brett Bellmore

I still have not had a chance to read the ruling in any more detail, but I do think some of it may be a function of the judge's belief that the Democratic lawyers did not present enough evidence to support the arguments they made in their brief. I wonder if more evidence would have mattered here.

"The Gerrymander That Ate America"

Juliet Eilperin writes this article on Slate, with the subhead: "Here's the only way to make House races competitive again."

"A Bark-and-Byte Battle Over Campaign Finance"

The Chronicle of Higher Education offers this article, with the subhead: "When Carol C. Darr argued that political blogging could create loopholes that should be closed, the election-lawyer-turned-scholar angered both sides of the red-blue divide." Darr will also particpate in a live web chat on Thursday.

New Student Note on the Media Exemption

Joshua Lane Shapiro has written "Corporate Media Power, Corruption, and the Media Exemption," 55 Emory LJ 161 (2006). For those with Westlaw access, view it here.

-- 
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211
(213)736-1466
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rick.hasen@lls.edu
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http://electionlawblog.org