Will We See Opinions from the Supreme Court in the Vermont Campaign Finance or Texas Redistricting Cases on Tuesday?

I am guessing that we'll see one of these on Tuesday, the next day the Court issues opinions, but there's no way to be sure.

"For McCain, A Surplus of Irony"

This George Will column will run in Sunday's Washington Post. It begins:

John McCain's undeclared but ubiquitous presidential campaign will produce a delicious moment when he announces, as he surely will, that he will not participate in the public funding system for presidential primaries. And if he is nominated, he and his Democratic opponent probably will be the first nominees since 1972 to rely on private money in the general election campaign.

There are two compounded ironies. First, the mantra of campaign "reformers" is that there is "too much" money in politics. But McCain will shun public funding because it provides too little money. He can raise much more from private interests. (But not from "special interests" -- interests McCain disapproves of.) Second, the reformers revere the McCain-Feingold legislation that expanded government regulation of the quantity, timing and content of political speech. But McCain-Feingold is one important reason the public funding system is collapsing.

Rosemead Recall Looks Like It is Back On

A docket entry in the case of Imperial v. Castruita from today states: "The court hereby clarifies that the preliminary injunction shall be deemed invalid. Accordingly, the court hereby retroactively denies the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction by Judge R. Gary Klausner." That's all I've got so far. UPDATE: Here is a story in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Another Jurisdiction Attempts to Bail Out from VRA Coverage

It is the City of Salem, Virginia. You can find the request before the three-judge court here. Gerry Hebert tells me that, if successful, this would mark the 11th jurisdiction to bail out from coverage of the VRA since 1982. I believe these were all or mostly in Virginia, and all or mostly handled by Gerry, the Bailout King. I hope that Gerry will weigh in on my proposal to ease bailout requirements in the renewed VRA as a way to try to save its constitutionality.

-- 
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