Subject: Re: [EL] Electionlawblog news and commentary 3/22/11
From: Bruce Cain
Date: 3/21/2011, 11:03 AM
To: "rick.hasen@lls.edu" <rick.hasen@lls.edu>
CC: Rick Hasen <hasenr@gmail.com>, Election Law <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>
Reply-to:
"bruce@cain.berkeley.edu"

From Behind the Firewall
 

A few friends have emailed me with amusement about the decision to "firewall" me from the California Redistricting Commission and its staff.  As I have publicly stated, I am willingly 
firewalled although I hope the idea of firewalling Cain does not catch on in academic circles.  It's actually not my first firewalling: I was firewalled by the Democratic legislature in 2001 because they thought I was too independent minded (the Assembly lawyers drew up the document) and then again in Arizona when I was serving as the special court master in order to protect me from undue influence from the Commission and its staff.  I had to ask the three judge panel for permission to have dinner with Michael McDonald as I was getting kind of lonely in Arizona and he was not the main consultant. 
 
For those who did not watch the CRC meeting, far more interesting than the concern about me was that about Justin Levitt.  Justin is in my opinion as earnest and well intentioned as reformers go so it was more than a little ironic that the Commission members were apparently intent on "conflicting him out" because he had had an Assembly Fellowship within the ten year window, violating the criteria established for the Commissioners themselves of not serving in a paid legislative position.  The Rose Institute response was that they did not know whether fellowships and internships counted. To me, this illustrates an interesting point about political purity--live by the purity sward, die by the purity sward.  Justin has been a forceful advocate for commissions and COI free approaches, and yet did not see that some might think that he violated the very same principles.  I have sympathy for him as I am a skeptic about purity in this realm. Oddly the rules are both over-inclusive and underinclusive--except for the fact that I am not longer a resident of California, my partisan/legislative sins fell outside the 10 year window, but interns and fellowships within the last tens plausibly do.  I recommend that people keep an eye on the California process.  It will teach us all a lot.
 
Bruce Cain 
  
 
 

 
On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 11:50 AM, Rick Hasen <hasenr@gmail.com> wrote:

March 21, 2011

The Supreme Court: Don't Have a Cao, Man

Today the Supreme Court denied cert. in Cao v. FEC, raising questions about federal party fundraising for candidates under BCRA I thought a grant was likely. Does this mean that Justice Alito and the Chief Justice are a bit gun-shy about wading back into the McCain-Feingold waters, or is something else at work? (Given that Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas were willing to grant cert. in the similar RNC v. FEC case, I had thought they'd be willing to do so here as well, though there were no dissents from denial of cert. in Cao.)

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:48 AM

"Bay Area redistricting expert wins state contract to draw new political boundaries"

Read this for signs of "partisan gridlock" on the Commission.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:38 AM

"There Comes a Time When People Just Have to Set Boundaries As States Redo Congressional Districts, Hobbyists Draw Own Lines; 'the Baconmander'"

The WSJ offers this interesting report.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:31 AM

"Where to count prisoners poses redistricting dilemma"

Stateline.org reports.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:11 AM

"The Citizens United effect; As Congress mulls changes, campaign finance reform cases multiply. "

The National Law Journal offers this report.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:07 AM

"Court Battles Over Campaign Disclosure Loom, Experts Predict"

This item appears at the "Open Secrets" blog.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 08:00 AM

March 20, 2011

"Assessing Electoral Fraud in New Democracies: A New Strategic Approach"

Staffan Darnolf has written this white paper for IFES.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 04:03 PM

Lots of Good Election Law Stuff....

in the current issue of the Cardozo Law Review.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 04:00 PM
--
Rick Hasen
Visiting Professor
UC Irvine School of Law
rhasen@law.uci.edu

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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