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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Election Law
Election Obstruction, Jason Marisam
Election Obstruction, Jason Marisam
Faculty Scholarship
In 2020 and 2022, multiple Republican county canvassers refused to perform their ministerial duty to approve election returns, obstructing the official certification of the results. The canvassers latched onto false claims of fraud and other conspiracies advanced by election deniers. They eventually relented because of court orders and public pressure. The elections produced official winners, and crisis was averted. But, as long as election denialism rots our political discourse, election obstruction by canvassers will be a persistent risk with significant dangers for our democracy. This Essay provides a brief history of election obstruction by canvassers, examines the modern link between …
Gaping Gaps In The History Of The Independent State Legislature Doctrine: Mcpherson V. Blacker, Usurpation, And The Right Of The People To Choose Their President, Mark Bonhorst, Michael W. Fitzgerald, Aviam Soifer
Gaping Gaps In The History Of The Independent State Legislature Doctrine: Mcpherson V. Blacker, Usurpation, And The Right Of The People To Choose Their President, Mark Bonhorst, Michael W. Fitzgerald, Aviam Soifer
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
The so-called independent state legislature doctrine was the jurisprudential heart of the effort by former President Trump and allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election and was featured in the briefs for Texas v. Pennsylvania. The idea that state legislatures might have power to intervene against the popular vote for the electoral college helped animate the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Frighteningly, at the very end of the 2021 Term, the Supreme Court accepted review of a North Carolina case—Moore v. Harper—in which Republican Party legislators invoked the independent state legislature doctrine to contend that state legislators …
Hyperpartisanship, Impeachment, And The Unchecked Executive Branch, Lindsay Dreyer
Hyperpartisanship, Impeachment, And The Unchecked Executive Branch, Lindsay Dreyer
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
Women, Motherhood, And The Quest For Easier Entry Into Campaigns For Elected Office, Harold Melcher
Women, Motherhood, And The Quest For Easier Entry Into Campaigns For Elected Office, Harold Melcher
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
Voting Rights For People With Diminished Mental Capacity, Courtney Schiffler
Voting Rights For People With Diminished Mental Capacity, Courtney Schiffler
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Dangerous Independent State Legislature Theory, Jason Marisam
The Dangerous Independent State Legislature Theory, Jason Marisam
Faculty Scholarship
In 2020, conservative justices and the Trump Campaign championed a theory, known as the independent state legislature doctrine, that claims voting rights protections in state constitutions do not apply to the election rules that state legislatures set for the federal elections in their states. Under the theory, state courts cannot review and enjoin these state election laws for state constitutional violations. This Article exposes the flaws and dangers of the independent state legislature theory. It deconstructs the justifications for its utility, revealing them as undertheorized and based on flawed assumptions of legislative behavior and flawed understandings of constitutional and institutional …
Time To Mail It In? A Survey Of 2020 Voting Rights Issues In Arkansas And Recommendations For More Inclusive Elections, Kim Vu-Dinh
Faculty Scholarship
The highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic, combined with over fifty lawsuits brought by former President Donald Trump, made the general election of 2020 one of the most controversial in the history of the United States. Accusations of voter disenfranchisement proliferated across the nation and were initiated by members of both sides of the political spectrum, even before Election Day. Arkansas was no exception to this rule. In 2020, multiple Arkansas lawsuits highlighted the weaknesses of the state’s voter infrastructure, particularly with regard to the absentee ballot process. Voting-by-mail was particularly important in the pandemic year when long lines became a public …
Wisconsin’S 3/5 Compromise: Prison Gerrymandering In Wisconsin Dilutes Minority Votes To Inflate White Districts’ Population, Adam Johnson
Wisconsin’S 3/5 Compromise: Prison Gerrymandering In Wisconsin Dilutes Minority Votes To Inflate White Districts’ Population, Adam Johnson
Mitchell Hamline Law Review
No abstract provided.
Felon Voting: The Call For An Australian Compromise, Kevin Lineberger
Felon Voting: The Call For An Australian Compromise, Kevin Lineberger
Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice
No abstract provided.
Virtuous Judges And Electoral Politics: A Contradiction?, Marie Failinger
Virtuous Judges And Electoral Politics: A Contradiction?, Marie Failinger
Faculty Scholarship
Judge Thomas J. Spargo serves as a fascinating poster-child in the debate on what’s wrong (or right) with judicial elections. Judge Spargo, campaigning for re-election as Justice of the Berne Town Court in upstate New York, was accused of “failing to observe the high standards of conduct” expected as a judge because he handed out doughnuts to voters. Judge Spargo’s case and others illustrate that popular debates about the merits of judicial elections versus judicial selection commissions have probably been mis-focused on two “second-order questions rather than concentrating on “first-order” concerns in judicial selection. This article discusses these questions and …