Acting Cabinet Secretaries And The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, 2023 Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark School of Law
Acting Cabinet Secretaries And The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, James A. Heilpern
University of Richmond Law Review
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution contains a mechanism that enables the Vice President, with the support of a majority of the Cabinet, to temporarily relieve the President of the powers and duties of the Presidency. The provision has never been invoked, but was actively discussed by multiple Cabinet Secretaries in response to President Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021. News reports indicate that at least two Cabinet Secretaries—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin—tabled these discussions in part due to uncertainties about how to operationalize the Amendment. Specifically, the Secretaries were concerned that the …
Partisan Gerrymandering: The Promise And Limits Of State Court Judicial Review, 2023 Marquette University Law School
Partisan Gerrymandering: The Promise And Limits Of State Court Judicial Review, Norman R. Williams
Marquette Law Review
In 2021, the Oregon Legislature succeeded in redrawing the state’s legislative and congressional districts, but the new redistricting plans were immediately challenged in state court as partisan gerrymanders. The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the challenge to the state legislative map, but its analysis, which accorded significant deference to the legislature’s choices, raised more questions than answers about the appropriate level of scrutiny for state redistricting plans. A special, five-judge court likewise rejected the gerrymandering challenge to the congressional map, and, while its analysis was less deferential, its decision also left unanswered the fundamental question regarding at what point a redistricting …
Keeping The Faith: How The Fourteenth Amendment Should Protect Against Faithless Electors, 2023 The University of Akron
Keeping The Faith: How The Fourteenth Amendment Should Protect Against Faithless Electors, Jennifer A. Cranmer
Akron Law Review
Every four years, citizens across the United States vote for a presidential candidate. However, those citizens are actually voting for electors who then vote for the president in the Electoral College on the citizens’ behalf. Electors become faithless when they do not vote for the candidate that they were pledged to vote for. In Chiafalo v. Washington, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of states enacting strict faithless elector laws that require electors to vote for the candidates they were pledged to vote for and impose penalties on electors who fail to do so. Yet many states have failed …
Sacred Spheres: Religious Autonomy As An International Human Right, 2023 The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
Sacred Spheres: Religious Autonomy As An International Human Right, Diana V. Thomson, Kayla A. Toney
Catholic University Law Review
How should courts resolve thorny human rights disputes that arise within religious groups? According to an emerging international consensus, they shouldn’t. When a case involves sensitive internal decisions by a religious organization, such as choosing who is qualified to teach the faith, courts are increasingly taking a hands-off approach. This global consensus has formed across international treaties, tribunals, and domestic courts in European and American nations. Every major human rights instrument and many international and domestic courts recognize that religious freedom must extend to religious communities, especially houses of worship and schools where believers gather to practice their faith and …
Voting Rights And The Electoral Process: Resolving Representation Issues Due To Felony Disenfranchisement And Prison Gerrymandering, 2023 Fordham University School of Law
Voting Rights And The Electoral Process: Resolving Representation Issues Due To Felony Disenfranchisement And Prison Gerrymandering, Andrew Calabrese, Tim Gordon, Tianyi Lu
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
Third Parties And The Electoral College: How Ranked Choice Voting Can Stop The Third-Party Disruptor Effect, 2023 Fordham University School of Law
Third Parties And The Electoral College: How Ranked Choice Voting Can Stop The Third-Party Disruptor Effect, Hillary Bendert, Jacqueline Hayes, Kevin Ruane
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
Presidential Election Disruptions: Balancing The Rule Of Law And Emergency Response, 2023 Fordham University School of Law
Presidential Election Disruptions: Balancing The Rule Of Law And Emergency Response, Jason D'Andrea, Sonia Montejano, Matthew Vaughan
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
Candidates Of Their Choice? Paradoxical Impact Of The Voting Rights Act In Virginia, 2023 Washington and Lee University
Candidates Of Their Choice? Paradoxical Impact Of The Voting Rights Act In Virginia, Mark E. Rush
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
Title I Of The Civil Rights Act In Contemporary Voting Rights Litigation, 2023 Fair Elections Center
Title I Of The Civil Rights Act In Contemporary Voting Rights Litigation, Helen L. Brewer
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
The New Laboratories Of Democracy, 2023 University of Pittsburgh, School of Law
The New Laboratories Of Democracy, Gerald S. Dickinson
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
Epic Fail: Harkenrider V. Hochul And New York's 2022 Misadventure In "Independent" Redistricting, 2023 Columbia Law School
Epic Fail: Harkenrider V. Hochul And New York's 2022 Misadventure In "Independent" Redistricting, Richard Briffault
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
No abstract provided.
Advancing America’S Emblematic Right: Doctrinal Bases For The Fundamental Constitutional Right To Vote Per Se, 2023 Michigan State University College of Law.
Advancing America’S Emblematic Right: Doctrinal Bases For The Fundamental Constitutional Right To Vote Per Se, Susan H. Bitensky
University of Miami Law Review
This Article identifies and examines the Supreme Court’s longstanding unintelligibility with respect to recognition of a fundamental right to vote per se under the Constitution. In a host of equal protection cases, the Court’s refusal to “say what the law is” in this regard has produced a chaotic jurisprudence on the status of the right. Because ours is a constitutional schema consisting of multiple types of rights to vote, the refusal manifests as judicial reliance on and acclamation of some unspecified right to vote. It is refusal by lack of clarity. The unsorted right has led some scholars to conclude …
Adversarial Election Administration, 2023 William & Mary Law School
Adversarial Election Administration, Rebecca Green
Faculty Publications
As Americans, we are conditioned to believe that involving partisans in the administration of elections is inherently problematic. Understandably. The United States is a major outlier; virtually every other developed democracy mandates nonpartisan election administration. Whether on the left or right— especially since the 2020 election—we are barraged with headlines about actual or feared partisanship on the part of those who run our elections. What this narrative misses, however, is a crucial and underrecognized fact: by design, partisans have always played central roles at every level of U.S. election administration. What is more, partisans are baked into the U.S. election …
Working To Elect Under-Represented Groups In Public Office, 2023 Clark University
Working To Elect Under-Represented Groups In Public Office, Jenny Pacillo
School of Professional Studies
Running for public office is a massive undertaking that is often inaccessible to marginalized groups of people including women, people of color, low income folks and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. These people, especially when they are first time candidates, face barriers that range from lack of finances to gatekeeping. Communities benefit when residents are represented by a diverse range of elected officials, as they bring unique perspectives, lived experiences and opinions to the table. This capstone will provide an overview of strategy, guidelines to follow and basic tools that are needed to run for office to assist first time …
Voter Due Process And The "Independent" State Legislature, 2023 Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Voter Due Process And The "Independent" State Legislature, Michael P. Bellis
Northwestern University Law Review
In a series of opinions surrounding the 2020 presidential election, multiple U.S. Supreme Court Justices broke from precedent to signal support of the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), a formerly obscure interpretation of state legislatures’ power over the administration of federal elections. Proponents of the ISLT allege that the U.S. Constitution grants state legislatures plenary power in federal election contexts—including the power to discount ballots, redraw legislative maps, or appoint alternative slates of presidential electors. Although the Court denied certiorari in each case, across the denials four current Justices dissented because they considered the ISLT to be a proper interpretation …
The Weakening Of The Voting Rights Act: A Proposal For Modernizing Preclearance, 2023 Brigham Young University
The Weakening Of The Voting Rights Act: A Proposal For Modernizing Preclearance, Breannan Perez
Brigham Young University Prelaw Review
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed more than 58 years ago. However, despite its attempt to identity and address discrimination, many of its safeguards have been struck down by the Court. In fact, Section 4b aimed to eliminate voting procedures that were discriminatory in effect, but has since been deemed as unconstitutional. Such a ruling has weakened the VRA and has burdened minority voters. This article proposes a modernized preclearance formula that considers states’ voting rights violations and current voting data. Such a proposal is necessary as a disregard of any voter is a threat to the integrity …
Enhancing Rural Representation Through Electoral System Diversity, 2023 University of Richmond School of Law
Enhancing Rural Representation Through Electoral System Diversity, Henry L. Chambers Jr.
University of Richmond Law Review
Rural Virginians face disparities in outcomes regarding healthcare, access to important infrastructure, and other services. Some disparities may be related to rurality. The sparseness of population in rural areas may limit the sites where people may access services, triggering the need to travel significant distances to obtain goods and services in such areas. Limited access may lead to disparities even when the quality of goods and services in rural areas is high. The disparities affect all rural Virginians, but disproportionately affect rural Virginians of color. The causes of the disparities are complex and myriad, and may be based on race, …
An Alternative To The Independent State Legislature Doctrine, 2023 Duquesne University
An Alternative To The Independent State Legislature Doctrine, Bruce Ledewitz
Law Faculty Publications
One of the most momentous actions taken by the United States Supreme Court in the last term was not deciding a case but granting review at the end of the term in Moore v. Harper, the North Carolina congressional redistricting case. This is the case in which the Supreme Court appears likely to adopt some version of the Independent State Legislature Doctrine (Doctrine). In this essay, I will describe the actual case and the Doctrine. But I will also be offering an alternative to the Doctrine, one that I believe achieves some of the goals that the Justices who …
De-Class-Ifying Microtargeted Political Advertising, 2023 Harvard Law School
De-Class-Ifying Microtargeted Political Advertising, Jacob Kovacs-Goodman
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
In contemporary American politics, Big Tech companies provide sophisticated advertising interfaces that enable anyone to target specific voters by demographic. These companies defend their tools as “neutral” to evade culpability for discriminatory ads. Yet, such microtargeted advertising presents a significant threat to democracy. This Article advances a possible two-pronged solution to bar online platforms from targeting political ads based on a user’s protected class. First, this Article promotes a largely unexplored tactic: extending Title II of the Civil Rights Act into the digital space so that behavior that would be impermissibly discriminatory offline is not permitted online. Second, this Article …
A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men: Why Justice Brandeis Was Right To Assume Congress Can Restrain The President's Removal Power, 2023 Fordham University School of Law
A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men: Why Justice Brandeis Was Right To Assume Congress Can Restrain The President's Removal Power, Danielle Rosenblum
Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum
Since the Founding, the extent of the president’s power to remove executive officials from office remains unsettled. While the Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2 empowers Congress to participate in the hiring of executive officials, the United States Constitution’s text is silent on whether Congress can limit the president’s ability to fire such employees. The debate on the proper scope of the president’s removal power is significant because it serves as a proxy for a larger constitutional question: whether constraints on presidential power advance or sit in tension with democracy. This Article argues that Justice Brandeis was right to …