Law Commons^™

The Law Of Presidential Transitions And The 2000 Election, Todd J. Zjwicki

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Bush V. Gore, Evan Tsen Lee

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

Critical Legal Studies ("the Crits") burst onto the law school scene in the mid-1970s. The Crits believe that "all law is politics." The Crits lost their momentum by the 1990s. The case Bush v. Gore has forced many to believe that all law is in fact politics.

The Origins And Constitutionality Of State Unit Voting In The Electoral College, Matthew J. Festa

Vanderbilt Law Review

On November 1, 2000, a Joint Resolution was introduced in Congress proposing a constitutional amendment to change the Article II system of electing the President and Vice President' by abolishing the Electoral College. Acknowledging the fact that "there have been more congressionally proposed constitutional amendments on this subject than any other," the sponsoring Senator noted that the issue "could become supremely important in a few days," because "we have the possibility that the winning candidate for President might not win the popular vote in our country.' One prominent legal scholar has described the mere possibility of such an event as …

"Be Careful What You Ask For": The 2000 Presidential Election, The U.S. Supreme Court, And The Law Of Criminal Procedure, Craig M. Bradley, Joseph L. Hoffmann

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beyond Counting Votes: The Political Economy Of Bush V. Gore, Michael Abramowicz, Maxwell L. Stearns

Vanderbilt Law Review

Journalists covering the 2000 presidential election controversy have had little trouble reconstructing the events of virtually every stage of the post-election process, reporting even privileged conversations among the candidates' lawyers. Yet one critical stage of the process remains shrouded in mystery: the behind-the-scenes events at the Supreme Court, which led to its decision in Bush v. Gore. Investigative reporting has produced only a few suggestive details. The Court has long insisted that it speaks through its opinions, and indeed the Court has left the public with only the Justices' statements at oral argument, and the various opinions themselves, from which …

Threading The Needle: Resolving The Impasse Between Equal Protection And Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act, Lindsay R. Errickson

Vanderbilt Law Review

When it comes to legislative reapportionment, the Peach State is in a pickle. Consider this: the results of the 1990 census entitled Georgia to an additional representative in the United States Congress, bringing the state's total number of seats to eleven.' In order to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (the "Voting Rights Act"), the state's legislative district map was re- drawn three times during the 1990s before the legal battle over redistricting finally ground to a halt in 1997. Barely giving the state's General Assembly and the federal courts a chance to catch their collective breath, the …

Reforms In Florida After The 2000 Presidential Election, Jon L. Mills

UF Law Faculty Publications

Much has been written concerning the Florida recount, and the final U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. Moreover, the popular media has mostly focused on the negatives of the Florida recount without delving into the exact reasons why Florida became the epicenter of this controversy. Not much has been written pinpointing the actual circumstances precipitating Florida's position after the election, nor discussing the theoretical underpinning of Florida election law, which embraces a broad liberal concept of respecting the “will of the voter.”

By examining both the actual circumstances surrounding Florida in 2000 and recognizing that Florida election …

Section 3: Legacy Of Bush V. Gore, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

The Very Faithless Elector, Vasan Kesavan

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Jabberwocky In The Presidential Election 2000: When Law And Facts Collide With Politics, Theresa H. Hammond

Mercer Law Review

Long before the United States Constitution was ratified, Americans displayed a deep skepticism of the judiciary. Codification of extremely detailed and complex laws was the palliate to judicial activism. People believed that if the laws were all published and readily accessible, judges would have less ability to substitute their own personal values and predilections for the will of the people, established through the legislation promulgated by their chosen representatives. Hamilton's first essay on the judiciary assured New Yorkers that "the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power" and that "the liberty of the people can …

Prosecuting Conduit Campaign Contributions - Hard Time For Soft Money, Robert D. Probasco

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, there have been several high-profile prosecutions for violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act, involving contributions nominally by one individual but funded or reimbursed by another individual deemed to be the true contributor. Prosecutions of these “conduit contribution” cases have been surprising in at least three significant respects. First, the prosecutions have been based on violations of FECA’s reporting requirements and may not have involved any violations of the substantive prohibitions or limitations of contributions. Second, the defendants were the donors rather than campaign officials who actually filed reports with FECA. Third, the cases were prosecuted as …

The 2000 Presidential Election: Archetype Or Exception?, Michael C. Dorf

Michigan Law Review

The day after the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, a colleague who specializes in tax law approached me with mock sympathy. "It must be very discouraging trying to teach constitutional law," he said, "when it's so obviously made up." This view of the Court's decision remains widely held, at least within the academy and among those who did not vote for President Bush. Unlike many of my fellow Democrats and academic colleagues, however, I see no reason to question the motives of the majority (or dissenting) Justices in Bush v. Gore. I certainly do not think that the …

Morgan Kousser's Noble Dream, Heather K. Gerken

Michigan Law Review

J. Morgan Kousser, professor of history and social science at the California Institute of Technology, is an unusual academic. He enjoys the respect of two quite different groups - historians and civil rights litigators. As a historian, Kousser has written a number of important works on the American South in the tradition of his mentor, C. Vann Woodward, including a foundational book on southern political history, The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910. Many of his writings have become seminal texts among election law scholars. Kousser has also used his historical skills …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

The editor speaks about the political unrest with the 2000 presidential election. He also speaks about the war in Angola. He speaks about the civi duty we have to mankind across the globe and the government's influence on other countries.

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Election Law, Christopher R. Nolen

University of Richmond Law Review

Depending on your perspective or partisan persuasion, the 2000 presidential election was either an overwhelming triumph of the American electoral system or an abysmal example of justice. Regardless, the recount in Florida caught the attention of the citizens of the nation, and in particular, the legislators in many states. The question, "could 'Florida' happen here?" prompted many in the Virginia General Assembly to cast a scrutinizing eye upon the Commonwealth's election laws. As a result, over one hundred legislative bills and resolutions were introduced in the 2001 Regular Session.' This article surveys the developments in Virginia's election laws from June …

Professionalism, Oversight, And Institution-Balancing: The Supreme Court's "Second Best" Plan For Political Debate On Television, Lili Levi

Articles

Televised political debates have become a staple of modern elections. Proponents of open access to such debates argue that third party participation is a democratic necessity. They see as catastrophic the Supreme Court's decision in Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Forbes, in which a state broadcaster was given the discretion to exclude a minor party candidate from a televised debate so long as the decision was viewpoint-neutral. This Article reads the Court's decision as a functional, "second best" solution that seeks to mediate the expressive and democratic values implicated in both open and closed access models. More generally, the …

Challenges To Racial Redistricting In The New Millennium: Hunt V. Cromartie As A Case Study, Guy-Uriel Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Electoral College, The Right To Vote, And Our Federalism: A Comment On A Lasting Institution, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of The 2000 Fourth Congressional District Race, Amber E. Wilson

Honors Theses

Prior to the November 7 election, incumbent Republican Jay Dickey aspired to maintain his eight-year hold on the fourth congressional district seat, while challenger, Mike Ross, a Democratic State Senator, had high hopes for a partisan restoration. In the end, Ross upset the incumbent carrying 51 percent of the 212,160 votes cast, a narrow 4, 126-vote margin. This paper assesses the strategic, tactical, and fiscal factors contributing to Ross's success in overriding incumbency advantages and reclaiming the seat for the Democrats. More specifically, it compares and contrasts candidate and noncandidate communications. Indeed, communication was the key component to these coordinated …

Constitutional Law: State Campaign Contribution Limits: Nixon V. Shrink Missouri Government Pac: An Abridgment Of Freedom In The Name Of Democracy, Richard J. Baker

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalism, Preclearance, And The Rehnquist Court, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

Lopez v. Monterey County is an odd decision. Justice O'Connor's majority opinion easily upholds the constitutionality of a broad construction of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in language reminiscent of the Warren Court. Acknowledging the "substantial 'federalism costs" resulting from the VRA's "federal intrusion into sensitive areas of state and local policymaking," Lopez recognizes that the Reconstruction Amendments "contemplate" this encroachment into realms "traditionally reserved to the States." Justice O'Connor affirms as constitutionally permissible the infringement that the section 5 preclearance process "by its nature" effects on state sovereignty, and applies section 5 broadly, holding the statute …

'Bush' V. 'Gore': What Was The Supreme Court Thinking?, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

One of the most astonishing episodes in American political history ended last month with perhaps the most imperial decision ever by the United States Supreme Court. In one stroke, the Court exercised power that belonged to Congress, the legislature of Florida, Florida's courts and administrators, and, most importantly, the people of the state.

Trying To Make Peace With Bush V. Gore (Symposium: Bush V. Gore Issue 2001), Richard D. Friedman

Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, shutting down the recounts of Florida's vote in the 2000 presidential election and effectively awarding the election to George W. Bush, has struck many observers, including myself, as outrageous.' Decisions of the Supreme Court should be more than mere reflections of ideological or partisan preference thinly camouflaged behind legalistic language. It would therefore be pleasant to be able to believe that they are more than that. Accordingly, Judge Richard Posner's analysis,2 in which he defends the result reached by the Court-though not the path by which it got there-is particularly welcome. Though …

The Search For Incontrovertible Visual Evidence, Paul F. Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

How Democratic Are Initiatives?, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Campaign Finance Reform, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

Any effort to achieve voluntary campaign finance reform raises two questions: Is it really voluntary, and does it really work? In Part I of this Essay, I examine the voluntariness of "voluntary" campaign finance reform. Agreements like that reached by Clinton and Lazio last year—what I term "purely voluntary agreements"—satisfy most legal tests for voluntariness. By contrast, the voluntariness of spending limits and other campaign restrictions that are imposed as a condition for receiving government funding of a political campaign—what I term "governmentally induced agreements"—is more doubtful. The extant jurisprudence recognizes that Buckley prohibits governmental actions that are more coercive …

Election Disputes And The Constitutional Right To Vote, Joseph W. Little

UF Law Faculty Publications

This commentary is an enlargement of a talk delivered at the annual conference of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (United Kingdom) held in Bristol, England, in April 2001. The purpose was to raise questions about where the "right-to-vote" comes from in the Florida and U.S. Constitutions and whether the constitutional right-to-vote possesses useful legal force in the judicial resolution of a closely-contested election. The Gore-Bush Florida election controversy was the stimulus.

Among the subsidiary questions are: What should a written constitution for a democratic government say about the right to vote? And, how, if at all, should constitutional litigation play a …