Digital Commons Network^™

Dollars And Sense: A "New Paradigm" For Campaign Finance Reform?, Daniel A. Farber

Daniel A Farber

No abstract provided.

Before Election Day, Some Reminders Of America's Greatness, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

Politics At The Pulpit: Tax Benefits, Substantial Burdens, And Institutional Free Exercise, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

More than fifty years ago, Congress enacted a prohibition against political campaign intervention for all charities, including churches and other houses of worship, as a condition for receiving tax deductible contributions. Yet the IRS has never taken a house of worship to court for alleged violation of the prohibition through political comments from the pulpit, presumably at least in part because of concerns about the constitutionality of doing so. This decision is surprising, because a careful review of Free Exercise Clause case law - both before and after the landmark Employment Division v. Smith decision - reveals that the prohibition …

Grasping Smoke: Enforcing The Ban On Political Activity By Charities, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

The rule that charities are not allowed to intervene in political campaigns has now been in place for over fifty years. Despite uncertainty about the exact reasons for Congress' enactment of it, skepticism by some about its validity for both constitutional and public policy reasons, and continued confusion about its exact parameters, this rule has survived virtually unchanged for all of those years. Yet while overall noncompliance with the income tax laws has drawn significant scholarly attention, few scholars have focused on violations of this prohibition and the IRS' attempts to enforce it. This Article focuses on the elusive issue …

A 'Strategic' Way To Vote 'Smart', Joanna Santa-Barbara, Erika Simpson

Erika Simpson

No abstract provided.

How Not To Count Votes, John C. Nagle

John Copeland Nagle

Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Samuel Tilden by one electoral vote in the presidential election of 1876. In Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876, Roy Morris, Jr. concludes that the election was stolen from Tilden by Republican partisans serving on the canvassing boards in the three Southern states - Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina - that were still under the control of Republican governments backed by the federal army. But in Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist defends the integrity and the actions of the Supreme …

The Recusal Alternative To Campaign Finance Legislation, John C. Nagle

John Copeland Nagle

Typical campaign finance proposals focus on limiting the amount of money that can be contributed to candidates and the amount of money that candidates can spend. This article suggests an alternative proposal that places no restrictions on contributions or spending, but rather targets the corrupting influence of contributions. Under the proposals, legislators would be required to recuse themselves from voting on issues directly affecting contributors. I contend that this proposal would prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption while remedying the first amendment objections to the regulation of money in campaigns.

Intellectual Property Policy, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

Newspaper Coverage Of Drug Policy: An Analysis Of Pre-Election Reporting Of The Greens' Drug Policy In Australia, Danika Hall, Sandra C. Jones, Fiona Cowlin

Sandra Jones

Introduction and Aims. With the headline 'Ecstasy Over The Counter' in a popular daily newspaper, the debate on drug policy officially entered the arena of the 2003 New South Wales (Australia) State Election. The debate resurfaced in the lead-up to the 2004 Australian Federal Election. This paper analyses the pre-election coverage of drug policy issues in four Australian newspapers. Design and Methods. Four high-circulation daily newspapers were monitored for a one-month period prior to both elections and analysed for their coverage of drug policy, particularly with respect to the policy of the Greens. Results. The newspapers took different perspectives on …

Power-Sharing, Post-Electoral Contestations, And The Dismemberment Of The Right To Democracy In Africa, Rowland Cole

rowland cole

While Africa has made recent significant democratic gains, the problem of rigged elections tends to persist. Elections in Africa mostly tend to lack transparency and are often skewed in favour of the incumbent. Recent events on the continent have shown the tendency of incumbents to manipulate electoral processes so as to remain in power. This often leads to violent backlash from those who believe that they have been robbed of electoral victory. In some instances, the violence has spiralled out of control, requiring regional intervention. The African Union (AU) tends to resolve these disputes by resorting to power-sharing. However, power-sharing …

Two Cheers For Instant Runoff Voting, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

"Instant runoff voting" (IRV) is a system that allows voters to rank their choices in a multicandidate election. Thus, the second-choice voters of less successful candidates are redistributed to the front-runners. The purpose of this system is to prevent candidates opposed by a majority of voters from winning. For example, if candidates A and B each have 40 percent of the vote and candidate C has 20 percent, the front-runner supported by the majority of C's supporters is the true "majority choice" and will win under IRV. The purpose of this article is to critically examine the arguments for and …

The Rational Choice, John P. Brunner Jr

John Brunner

No abstract provided.

Letter From Iowa: Same-Sex Marriage And The Ouster Of Three Justices, Todd E. Pettys

Todd E. Pettys

This article examines Iowa's 2010 judicial-retention election, in which Iowa voters ousted three members of the Iowa Supreme Court in response to that court's ruling that the state's statutory ban on same-sex marriage violated the Iowa Constitution.

More Thoughts On The Compact Clause And The National Popular Vote: A Response To Professor Hendricks, Derek Muller

Derek T. Muller

This article briefly responds to three of the more salient issues noted by Professor Hendricks in her article "Popular Election of the President: Using or Abusing the Electoral College?, 7 ELECTION L.J. 218 (2008). First, I establish that the Supreme Court actually would enforce the requirement of congressional consent for the Compact under its current jurisprudence according to the "Political Consent" Compact Clause. Second, I define a "political compact," not merely in terms of the topic or type of the compact, but in terms of its function as a compact that tends to enlarge the power of some states at …

Grasping Smoke: Enforcing The Ban On Political Activity By Charities, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

The rule that charities are not allowed to intervene in political campaigns has now been in place for over fifty years. Despite uncertainty about the exact reasons for Congress' enactment of it, skepticism by some about its validity for both constitutional and public policy reasons, and continued confusion about its exact parameters, this rule has survived virtually unchanged for all of those years. Yet while overall noncompliance with the income tax laws has drawn significant scholarly attention, few scholars have focused on violations of this prohibition and the IRS' attempts to enforce it. This Article focuses on the elusive issue …

The Compact Clause And The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Derek T. Muller

Derek T. Muller

Despite previous historical failed attempts to abolish the Electoral College at the federal level, in the months following the 2000 election, several lawyers, politicians, and academics concocted a novel plan to abolish the College at the State level. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would be enacted State by State and require each enacting State to give its electoral votes to the winner of a plurality of the national popular vote.

This Article does not attempt to address the merits or drawbacks of the system as a matter of policy. Instead, Part I begins with a brief history of the …