Law Commons^™

Incarcerated And Unrepresented: Prison-Based Gerrymandering And Why Evenwel’S Approval Of “Total Population” As A Population Base Shouldn’T Include Incarcerated Populations, Emily J. Heltzel

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Gerrymandering And The Constitutional Norm Against Government Partisanship, Michael S. Kang

Michigan Law Review

This Article challenges the basic premise in the law of gerrymandering that partisanship is a constitutional government purpose at all. The central problem, Justice Scalia once explained in Vieth v. Jubilerer, is that partisan gerrymandering becomes unconstitutional only when it “has gone too far,” giving rise to the intractable inquiry into “how much is too much.” But the premise that partisanship is an ordinary and lawful purpose, articulated confidently as settled law and widely understood as such, is largely wrong as constitutional doctrine. The Article surveys constitutional law to demonstrate the vitality of an important, if implicit norm against …

The Last Frontier Of Disenfranchisement: A Fundamental Right For Individuals With Cognitive Disabilities, Hillary May

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Howell V. Mcauliffe, L. Michael Berman

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judging Law In Election Cases, Michael S. Kang, Joanna M. Shepherd

Vanderbilt Law Review

How much does law matter in election cases where the partisan stakes are high? At first glance, election cases may seem the worst context for studying the influence of law on judicial decision making. Election cases, which decide the applicable rules for a given election, often determine election outcomes and therefore feature the highest political stakes in the balance. There is great temptation for judges to decide these cases in a partisan fashion to help their side. And we have found empirically in earlier work that judges do often appear influenced by partisanship in deciding these cases for their own …

Judicial Reform As A Tug Of War: How Ideological Differences Between Politicians And The Bar Explain Attempts At Judicial Reform, Adam Bonica, Maya Sen

Vanderbilt Law Review

What predicts attempts at judicial reform? We develop a broad, generalizable framework that both explains and predicts attempts at judicial reform. Specifically, we explore the political tug of war created by the polarization between the bar and political actors, in tandem with existing judicial selection mechanisms. The more liberal the bar and the more conservative political actors, the greater the incentive political actors will have to introduce ideology into judicial selection. (And, vice versa, the more conservative the bar and the more liberal political actors, the greater incentive political actors will have to introduce ideology into judicial selection.) Understanding this …

The Road To A Constitutional Convention: Reforming The New York State Unified Court System And Expanding Access To Civil Justice, Jonathan Lippman

Pace Law Review

This article will focus on the judiciary reforms and access to justice—starting with reforms to the structure of the Unified Court System and discussing other ways that a constitutional convention might serve to improve the operation of the courts. The article will then explore the state’s deficiency in providing its low-income citizens access to justice in civil matters relating to housing, family safety and security, and subsistence income, and how a convention can highlight these issues.

Unusual “Politics As Usual”: The 2017 Ballot Proposition Calling For A Constitutional Convention In New York, Peter J. Galie

Pace Law Review

The first task of constitutional reformers is to make the people of the state aware that they live under a constitution that, for better or worse, affects their everyday lives whether they live on in remotes sections of the Adirondacks routes in villages or a teeming megalopolis. Until this is done, the people are not likely to demand or even accept the more thoroughgoing revision so badly needed in New York.

The Amending Clause In The New York Constitution And Conventionphobia, Gerald Benjamin

Pace Law Review

The amending clause is the nineteenth of the New York State Constitution’s twenty articles. Followed only by the enacting clause, for all intents and purposes this is the document’s final word. Well, maybe not the final word. An alternative is to think of this amending clause as a part of an ongoing several-centuries-long conversation. The clause is a message from one past group of designers and drafters of New York’s governing system, the 1846 Constitutional Convention majority, to all of us who gave them the charge to “secure [for us] the blessings of freedom,” that is to “we the people” …

The Inaugural Abraham Lincoln Lecture On Constitutional Law: Electoral College Reform, Lincoln-Style, Akhil Reed Amar

Northwestern University Law Review

This Inaugural Abraham Lincoln Lecture was delivered at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law on April 6, 2017.

Redistricting Reform In Wisconsin To Curtail Gerrymandering: The Wisconsin Impartial Citizens Redistricting Commission, Joseph W. Bukowski

Marquette Law Review

After an extremely partisan gerrymander in 2011, Wisconsin needs redistricting reform in order to eliminate partisan politics from the process. Now more than ever, momentum for change has reached its peak: the Wisconsin legislative maps as drawn in 2011 were ruled unconstitutional in Whitford v. Gill; the Supreme Court has recently ruled in favor of states implementing independent redistricting commissions; and nearly half of the states in the United States are beginning to use independent commissions for redistricting. This Comment proposes a unique approach for Wisconsin to adopt in order to curtail gerrymandering: the Wisconsin Impartial Citizens Redistricting Commission (WICRC). …

How To Unlock The Voting Block: Oregon’S Sweeping Solution To Poor Voter Turnout: Automatic Registration, Gavin Rynard

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Alternative Dispute Resolution For Election Access Issues In A Post-Voting Rights Act Section 5 Landscape, Casey Millburg

Arbitration Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dilution Of The Black Vote: Revisiting The Oppressive Methods Of Voting Rights Restoration For Ex-Felons, Tara A. Jackson

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gerrymandering (Almost) Gone Wild: How The Supreme Court Saved Independent Redistricting Reform, Michael Woods

Florida Law Review

Elections have consequences. In the 2010 U.S. midterm elections, the Republican Party made historic congressional gains. After the election, much political discourse focused on the incoming battle between the new Republican Congress and President Barack Obama. Yet the midterm results affected much more than the presidential agenda, as the Republican Party also achieved impressive state-level gains that resulted in control of many legislative chambers nationwide. These sweeping state-level gains did not affect policy alone. The Democratic Party—and the Republican Party in several “blue” states—paid a drastic price: the gerrymandered results of the 2010 decennial redistricting cycle.

As a partisan tool, …

No Matter Who Draws The Lines: A Comparative Analysis Of The Utility Of Independent Redistricting Commissions In First-Past-The-Post Democracies, Katherine L. Ekstrand

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Voting Rights And The History Of Institutionalized Racism: Criminal Disenfranchisement In The United States And South Africa, Brock A. Johnson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Electoral Choices, Ethnic Accommodations, And The Consolidation Of Coalitions: Critiquing The Runoff Clause Of The Afghan Constitution, Mohammad Bashir Mobasher

Washington International Law Journal

Article sixty-one of the Afghan Constitution requires a candidate to win an absolute majority of votes to become the president. This constitutional rule comprises a runoff clause, which prescribes a second round of elections between the two front-runners should no candidate win over 50% of the votes in the first round. While this article agrees with the majority view of Afghan scholars and politicians who see the runoff clause as instrumental to developing trans-ethnic coalitions and governments, it distinguishes between the formation of alliances and their consolidation. Ultimately, this article posits that the runoff clause actually impedes the long-term success …

Katuka V Electoral Commission Of Zambia (2016/Cc/0025) [2016] Zmcc 2 (9 August 2016), Chanda Chungu

SAIPAR Case Review

No abstract provided.

Hichilema And Another V Lungu And Another (2016/Cc/0031) [2016] Zmcc 4 (5 September 2016), Minority Judgement, Dunia P. Zongwe

SAIPAR Case Review

On September 5th 2016, there was tension in the packed Constitutional Court. Three out of five Constitutional Court judges (i.e., Anne Mwewa-Sitali, Mugeni Mulenga and Palan Mulonda) dismissed the election petition of Presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema and his running mate Geoffrey Mwamba, on the grounds that the time for hearing the petition had lapsed. The President of the Court Justice Hildah Chibomba, and Justice Margaret Munalula dissented.

Dividing the Court was the interpretation and effect of Articles 101(5) and 103(2) of the Constitution of Zambia. Articles 101 (5) and 103 (2) provide that the Constitutional Court must hear a Presidential …

Hichilema And Another V Lungu And Another (2016/Cc/0031) [2016] Zmcc 4 (5 September 2016), Majority Judgment, Muna Ndulo

SAIPAR Case Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting America's Elections From Foreign Tampering: Realizing The Benefits Of Classifying Election Infrastructure As "Critical Infrastructure" Under The United States Code, Allaire M. Monticollo

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Post-Crawford Rise In Voter Id Laws: A Solution Still In Search Of A Problem, David M. Faherty

Maine Law Review

In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter identification law, which required registered voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls. Instead of applying heighted scrutiny to a law that had an effect on voter qualifications, the Court simply balanced the asserted state interest of protecting the integrity and reliability of elections by preventing voter fraud against the burden imposed on eligible voters who were prevented from voting because they did not possess the required form of photo identification. Not persuaded by the fact that Indiana could not point to a single instance of …

Election Slapps: Effective At Suppressing Political Participation And Giving Anti-Slapp Statutes The Slip, Leah Mcgowan Kelly

Maine Law Review

Most states have established an intricate network of rules and procedures that independent candidates need to follow in order to get on the state’s ballot for the presidential election. If a candidate manages to make it onto a state’s ballot, most states also have a mechanism that allows almost anyone to challenge the process the candidate went through to get on the ballot. Citizens can challenge the candidate’s nomination petition, and then appeal the decision on the challenge at several different levels. An independent candidate running for national office can become embroiled in simultaneous petition challenges, and appeals, throughout the …

Guaranteeing The Right To Vote For Twenty-First Century America, Brandon Haase

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

One Person, One Vote: Gerrymandering And The Independent Commission, A Global Perspective, James Ruley

Indiana Law Journal

In 1863, on the hallowed fields at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln encapsulated a core principle of democracy by describing our system as a “government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people.” This definition accurately depicts the ideal of democracy—that supreme power is vested in the citizenry, not in the government itself. Since the American model is based on representative democracy instead of direct democracy, extreme scrutiny must be placed upon the system of choosing representatives if government is to accurately represent the will of the people.

One of the greatest abuses of a citizen’s voting rights is gerrymandering. …

The Current State Of Election Law In The United States, Mark Rush

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Left Of Liberal Interpretation Of Trump's "Big" Win, Part One: Neoliberalism, Duncan Kennedy

Nevada Law Journal Forum

Trump’s narrow victories in swing states could have been caused by any number of factors, but it is still significant that there was a nation-wide shift of the non-college white electorate, male and female. Many non-college Democrats who had voted for Obama did not turn out for Hillary and some voted for Trump; many Republicans who had not voted for Romney turned out for Trump. This article proposes, as part of the explanation, a rebellion of non-college whites against the consequences for poor communities, in red states or in red pockets in blue states, of four decades of neoliberal selective …

Voting, Spending, And The Right To Participate, Robert Yablon

Northwestern University Law Review

While the law governing the electoral process has changed dramatically in the past decade, one thing has stayed the same: Courts and commentators continue to view voting in elections and spending on elections through distinct constitutional lenses. On the spending side, First Amendment principles guide judicial analysis, and recent decisions have been strongly deregulatory. On the voting side, courts rely on a makeshift equal protection-oriented framework, and they have tended to be more accepting of regulation. Key voting and spending precedents seldom cite each other. Similarly, election law scholars typically address voting and spending in isolation.

This Article challenges the …

The New Front In The Clean Air Wars: Fossil-Fuel Influence Over State Attorneys General- And How It Might Be Checked, Eli Savit

Michigan Law Review

Review of Struggling for Air: Power and the "War On Coal" by Richard L. Revesz and Jack Leinke, and Federalism on Trial: State Attorneys General and National Policymaking in Contemporary America by Paul Nolette.