Law Commons^™

“When Did African Americans Get The Right To Vote In Georgia?”, Marc T. Treadwell

Mercer Law Review

Most know that the post‑Civil War Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed citizens of all races, or at least male citizens of all races, the right to vote. But notwithstanding the keen interest today in voting rights and alleged voter suppression and that well-known Fifteenth Amendment, few know that for decades African Americans were banned outright from voting in primary elections that determined state and local leaders in many Southern states. In the post‑Reconstruction South, the Democratic Party controlled every facet of state politics and government. The Party’s whites‑only primary elections ineluctably determined the outcome of general elections. The party did not allow …

When The Dust Has Settled: Fallout From The 2020 Presidential Election And S.B. 202 Placed Georgia’S Election Code In The Nation’S Crosshairs, William L. Wheeler

Mercer Law Review

Long regarded as a “safe” red territory, Georgia was thrust into the center of a national debate on federal and state elections when President Joe Biden flipped the state blue in the 2020 presidential election. In the wee hours of the morning on November 4, 2020, as the final votes were tallied and the electorate results became clear, the Peach State became the ignition point for a fiery, and often hyper-partisan, national debate over federal elections and how states conduct such contests. Due in part to the contrived rhetoric espoused by acolytes of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) party, …

Trumped: Intentional Voter Suppression In The Wake Of The 2020 Election, Wesley N. Watts

Mercer Law Review

There was nothing normal about the year 2020. For just the third time in history, an American president was impeached, world icons John Lewis and Kobe Bryant passed away, the country of Australia was devastated by brushfires that burned some forty-six million acres of land, and The United States faced a racial reckoning the likes of which had been unseen since the Civil Rights era. All of this took place on the heels of a global pandemic that has killed more than 4.3 million people to date and has infected 10% of the global population. These events of the year …

Resolving The Ambiguity: How Cowen V. Ga. Sec’Y Of State Helps Third Parties Climb Georgia’S Steep Mountain Of Ballot-Access Restrictions, Sean Callihan

Mercer Law Review

Minor political parties are rejoicing and celebrating a significant victory in Cowen v. Ga. Sec’y of State, as a stepping stone in loosening Georgia’s rigorous ballot-access restrictions. Georgia’s rigorous 5% petition requirement is one of the highest barriers in the nation for a political body to overcome, a barrier that has never been breached in Georgia since its adoption in 1943. In Cowen, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia erred by granting summary judgment in favor of Georgia’s Secretary of State without …

Racially Neutral In Form, Racially Discriminatory In Fact: The Implications For Voting Rights Of Giving Disproportionate Racial Impact The Constitutional Importance It Deserves, Gary J. Simson

Mercer Law Review

In two decisions in the mid-1970s, Washington v. Davis and Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that proving that a law racially neutral on its face disproportionately disadvantages racial minorities does not establish a violation of the Equal Protection Clause or even create a presumption that such a violation has occurred. Disproportionate racial impact “is not irrelevant,” the Court explained, but “it is not the sole touchstone of an invidious racial discrimination forbidden by the Constitution.” The key, according to the Court, lies in proving that the law was the …

Voter Fraud As An Epistemic Crisis For The Right To Vote, Atiba R. Ellis

Mercer Law Review

Despite the antidiscrimination frameworks contained in the constitutional and statutory protections for the right to vote, access to the American ballot box is generally perceived as heavily contested. More precisely, many right-to-vote advocates (and their popular supporters) believe that the right to vote is in a crisis of exclusion so extreme that it represents a resurgence of Jim Crow racial exclusion from the franchise. Advocates for election integrity initiatives and their supporters claim that because of impending threats by “illegal voters” who will distort election results, initiatives like voter identification laws, proof of citizenship laws, and voter purges are necessary, …

Rucho For Minimalists, Benjamin Plener Cover

Mercer Law Review

In one of last term’s most consequential cases, Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court of the United States decided, 5–4, that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.” This limits the power of the federal courts to address what many, this author included, consider a significant threat to American democracy: the manipulation of electoral maps to favor certain voters or candidates. Federal courts may still intervene to vindicate the one-person-one-vote principle, enforce the Voting Rights Act (VRA), or invalidate racial gerrymanders. But not to limit partisan gerrymandering. Writing for the majority, Chief …

You’Ve Got (Political) Questions? We’Ve Got No Answers, Michael R. Dimino

Mercer Law Review

In Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court of the United States held that partisan-gerrymandering claims present non-justiciable political questions. The decision seemingly settled a controversy that had existed for decades, during which the Court was simultaneously unwilling to declare partisan-gerrymandering claims non-justiciable and unable to agree on a judicially manageable standard for adjudicating those claims. In Rucho, for the first time, a five-Justice majority definitively concluded that there are no judicially manageable standards to determine the constitutionality of partisan gerrymanders, and therefore held that federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear cases raising such claims.

Although the Court …

Chester Arthur’S Ghost: A Cautionary Tale Of Campaign Finance Reform, Anthony J. Gaughan

Mercer Law Review

Chester Arthur may not be the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of major figures in the rise of campaign finance law. But despite his obscurity, he deserves to be ranked among the leading reformers in American history. As President, he signed into law a reform that cleared the way for the modern system of campaign finance to take root.

This Article puts the current debate over money in politics in historical context by examining the first major campaign finance reform in American history. The 1883 Pendleton Act is remembered today for establishing a professional, nonpartisan civil …

Voter Suppression Post-Shelby: Impacts And Issues Of Voter Purge And Voter Id Laws, Lydia Hardy

Mercer Law Review

The old adage that history repeats itself is no truer than when considered in the context of contemporary voting and election law. The history repeating itself within a new wave of legislation is voter suppression that mirrors many issues in the voting rights history of the United States. Since the landmark Shelby County v. Holder case in 2013, there has been a marked increase in the passage of new voting laws as well as corresponding court challenges to these laws. Unlike the discriminatory tactics and laws of the Jim Crow era that were banned and declared unconstitutional after the enactment …

Election Spotlight: Nearly Twenty Years After Hanging Chads, Problems Persist In Florida, Christopher Wood

Mercer Law Review

The right to vote is as close to sacrosanct as almost any right in our constitutional system. The election-battleground state of Florida has time and time again come under the national spotlight due to its vote counting practices. Florida fell under immense national scrutiny as the entire nation awaited the resolution of the 2000 presidential election. Bush v. Gore highlighted many of the inherent issues with the Florida system of allowing individual counties free rein to enact their own election procedures. The lack of any central guidance in election procedures has, in large part, persisted. The latest iteration concerns the …

Federal Oversight Of State Primaries: The Troubling Drift From Equal Protection To Association, Jacob Eisler

Mercer Law Review

The latter half of the twentieth century saw a dramatic transformation in the degree and quality of federal judicial oversight of the voting process. With the one-person, one-vote jurisprudence, the Supreme Court of the United States imposed a basic requirement of personal equality in district line-drawing. In the context of race, Gomillion v. Lightfoot became the beachhead in the premise that racial discrimination will not be tolerated in voting procedure. A few decades later, Davis v. Bandemer suggested that fair district line-drawing could require non-discrimination on the grounds of party identification. In each of these domains of court-led intervention, one …

Black And White Make Gray: Common Cause V. Kemp, What's The Trigger For Purging Voters?, Caitlin Wise

Mercer Law Review

Imagine showing up to the voting poll, eager to vote and to show support for a candidate, and waiting in a long line, possibly in the cold. Then imagine handing your identification over only to be told you were not on the voter registration roll. This is what happened to 100,000 voters in the 2016 presidential primary election when they were purged from the voter registration rolls. Because of the voter purging, they were unable to cast their vote in a controversial and close election. ABC News reported many voters who were removed from voting registration rolls were from low-income …

Reasonable Restrictions On The Franchise: Georgia's Voter Identification Act Of 2006, Joseph M. Colwell

Mercer Law Review

In Democratic Party of Georgia, Inc. v. Perdue, the Georgia Supreme Court declared constitutional the Voter Identification Act of 2006 (2006 Act), insofar as it required registered Georgia voters to present valid photo identification at the polls when voting in person in any Georgia election. The 2006 Act was the most recent amendment in a series of iterations of section 21-2-417 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.)-the provision of the Georgia code imposing certain polling requirements for in-person voting. Each version of the law has generated much controversy as to polling and voting requirements in Georgia, and …

Politics As Usual: The Continuing Debate Over Partisan Gerrymandering Schemes In League Of United Latin American Citizens V. Perry, Steve Flynn

Mercer Law Review

In League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, the Supreme Court held that a statewide challenge to the Texas State Legislature's mid-term redistricting plan did not violate Section Two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but that the redrawing of district lines in one particular district (District 23) did violate the Act. The case leaves open the ability of the Supreme Court to adjudicate political gerrymandering schemes in cases where equal protection claims are made.

Of Metaphor, Metonymy, And Corporate Money: Rhetorical Choices In Supreme Court Decisions On Campaign Finance Regulation, Linda L. Berger

Mercer Law Review

When a corporation participates in the public sphere, its participation often takes the form of money. Corporate money must be given to someone to bring corporate participation into being-money to spend on public relations, advertising, or lobbying, or money to spend in a political campaign. Though the form is the same, the Supreme Court has treated these modes of corporate participation very differently. On the one hand, corporate money is seen as speech when it is the means used for corporations to sell products or state positions on issues. On the other, a majority of the Rehnquist-O'Connor Court perceived corporate …

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 …

Chandler V. Miller: The Supreme Court Closed The Door On The Factual Instances That Warrant Suspicionless Searches, Justin Scott

Mercer Law Review

Chandler v. Miller involved the constitutionality of a Georgia statute that required candidates for designated state offices to pass a drug test prior to qualifying for nomination or election.

United States V. Hays: A Winnowing Of Standing To Sue In Racial Gerrymandering Claims, Jack Pritchard

Mercer Law Review

In United States v. Hays, the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether individuals who reside outside racially gerrymandered districts have standing to sue on racial gerrymandering claims. In May 1992, Louisiana passed Act 42 of its Regular Session, which redrew its district boundaries to form two majority-minority districts -Districts 4 and 2. District 4 was a "Z-shaped creature" that zigzagged through twenty-eight parishes and five major cities, yet the Act was precleared by the United States Attorney General. The plaintiffs, Hays et al., were residents of Lincoln Parish, which was located in the newly formed District …