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Full-Text Articles in Law
When Judges Carve Democracies: A Primer On Court-Drawn Redistricting Plans, Nathaniel Persily
When Judges Carve Democracies: A Primer On Court-Drawn Redistricting Plans, Nathaniel Persily
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This essay presents guidelines for courts that undertake to draw their own redistricting plans. Although several dozen courts over the last four redistricting cycles have drawn their own plans, there is precious little in the case law or secondary sources to provide guidance. As a result, courts vary considerably in the procedures they follow and the substantive factors they take into account in their plans. This essay discusses the unique legal constraints on court-drawn plans and assesses the costs and benefits of following various procedures or substantive redistricting principles. The unique context of each case that spurs judicial involvement will …
The Accelerating Degradation Of American Criminal Codes, Paul H. Robinson, Michael T. Cahill
The Accelerating Degradation Of American Criminal Codes, Paul H. Robinson, Michael T. Cahill
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This Article addresses the ongoing-and, indeed, accelerating process of sporadic, piecemeal, and unnecessary legislation leading to increasing inconsistencies and irrationalities in American criminal law. After a wave of modernization in the I960s and 1970s, the past generation has not witnessed further advances, but rather a serious and growing degradation of most criminal codes. This Article offers several insights regarding criminal code degradation. First, it provides specific and concrete examples of degradation and its harmful effects. Second, drawing on their experiences as participants in the recent reform efforts of Illinois and Kentucky, the authors offer an insider's view of how the …
Regulating Democracy Through Democracy: The Use Of Direct Legislation In Election Law Reform, Nathaniel Persily, Melissa Cully Anderson
Regulating Democracy Through Democracy: The Use Of Direct Legislation In Election Law Reform, Nathaniel Persily, Melissa Cully Anderson
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The study examines a wealth of election law reforms - term limits (for governor and state legislators), campaign finance reform (contribution limits and public funding), redistricting (pre-Baker v. Carr and creation of commissions), creation and regulation of primaries, and women's suffrage - to figure out whether differences exist between the election law regimes in initiative and non-initiative states and whether these differences (if any) might be attributed to the use of the initiative process. We find that in very few cases - legislative term limits and perhaps redistricting commissions - do initiative states differ noticeably from non-initiative states, and in …
How Do Corporations Play Politics? The Fedex Story, Jill E. Fisch
How Do Corporations Play Politics? The Fedex Story, Jill E. Fisch
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Corporate political activity has been the subject of federal regulation since 1907, and the restrictions on corporate campaign contributions and other political expenditures continue to increase. Most recently, Congress banned soft money donations in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ("BCRA"), a ban upheld by the Supreme Court in McConnell v. FEC. Significantly, although the omnibus BCRA clearly was not directed exclusively at corporations, the Supreme Court began its lengthy opinion in McConnell by referencing and endorsing the efforts of Elihu Root, more than a century ago, to prohibit corporate political contributions. Repeatedly, within the broad context of campaign …
The Internet And Citizen Participation In Rulemaking, Cary Coglianese
The Internet And Citizen Participation In Rulemaking, Cary Coglianese
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Each year, regulatory agencies promulgate thousands of important rules through a process largely insulated from ordinary citizens. Many observers believe the Internet could help revolutionize the rulemaking process, allowing citizens to play a central role in the development of new government regulations. This paper expresses a contrary view. In it, I argue that existing efforts to apply information technology to rulemaking will not noticeably affect citizen participation, as these current efforts do little more than digitize the existing process without addressing the underlying obstacles to greater citizen participation. Although more innovative technologies may eventually enable the ordinary citizen to play …