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Individual Rights And The Political Process: A Proposed Framework For Democracy Defining Cases, Walter M. Frank

walter m frank

For more than four decades, since Baker v. Carr, the Supreme Court has been shaping our democracy in important ways. Among other things, it has approved numerous state laws directed against third parties and independent candidacies, accepted incumbent protection as a redistricting principle, ended the movement for term limits for congressional representatives, eliminated most political patronage, prohibited laws aimed at limiting campaign expenditures, and decided a presidential election. These and other democracy defining cases are often decided on the basis of First Amendment and Equal Protection arguments that do not adequately address the democratic tensions in these cases, resulting in …