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Faithless Electors And The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact After Chiafalo V. Washington, Coy Westbrook Dec 2022

Faithless Electors And The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact After Chiafalo V. Washington, Coy Westbrook

St. Mary's Law Journal

In conclusion, the opinion of the Court in Chiafalo sets a dangerous precedent. The Court gave the states the power to control and to remove electors who failed to cast their votes in accordance with the candidate who won their state’s electoral votes. However, with the growth of the National Popular Vote now in sixteen jurisdictions, there are questions as to whether the Supreme Court, when faced with a challenge to this interstate compact, would hold that the Compact was in violation of the Constitution. Additionally, with the possibility that the NPVIC may violate state constitutions, there will be rigorous …

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The Electoral Count Mess: The Electoral Count Act Of 1887 Is Unconstitutional, And Other Fun Facts (Plus A Few Random Academic Speculations) About Counting Electoral Votes, Jack Beermann, Gary Lawson Jan 2022

The Electoral Count Mess: The Electoral Count Act Of 1887 Is Unconstitutional, And Other Fun Facts (Plus A Few Random Academic Speculations) About Counting Electoral Votes, Jack Beermann, Gary Lawson

FIU Law Review

In this essay, and in light of the controversy that arose in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, we explain the constitutional process for counting electoral votes. In short, every four years, the Twelfth Amendment requires the President of the Senate (usually the Vice President of the United States) to open certificates provided by state presidential electors and count the votes contained therein. The Constitution allows no role for Congress in this process, and thus, the provisions of the Electoral Count Act purporting to grant Congress the power, by concurrent resolution, to reject a state’s electoral votes, is unconstitutional. …

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Baby & Bathwater: Standing In Election Cases After 2020, Steven J. Mulroy Oct 2021

Baby & Bathwater: Standing In Election Cases After 2020, Steven J. Mulroy

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The current consensus among commentators is that the flood of cases challenging the 2020 presidential election results was almost completely meritless. This consensus is correct as to the ultimate result, but not as to the courts’ treatment of standing. In their (understandable) zeal to reject sometimes frivolous attempts to overturn a legitimate election and undermine public confidence in our electoral system, many courts were too quick to rule that plaintiffs lacked standing. These rulings resulted in unjustified sweeping rulings that voters were not injured even if their legal votes were diluted by states accepting illegal votes; that campaigns did not …

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The Vice Presidency In The Twenty-First Century, Jody C. Baumgartner Apr 2017

The Vice Presidency In The Twenty-First Century, Jody C. Baumgartner

Pepperdine Law Review

The vice presidency has undergone almost revolutionary change since its inception 227 years ago. Conceived as a convenient solution to a problem created by the Electoral College, the Vice President has only two constitutional functions—to serve as a successor to the President and as the President of the Senate. However, over the past sixty years, vice presidents have become increasingly part of and integral to American governance, and the last three (Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden) have been exceptionally active executive actors. What was once an all-but forgotten office is now an essential part of a president’s administration. …

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The Vice President-More Than An Afterthought?, Richard B. Cheney, Edwin Meese Iii, Douglas W. Kmiec Apr 2017

The Vice President-More Than An Afterthought?, Richard B. Cheney, Edwin Meese Iii, Douglas W. Kmiec

Pepperdine Law Review

A round-table discussion among former U.S. Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Caruso Family Professor of Law and retired U.S. Ambassador Douglas Kmiec, and former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III considered the practical implications of conceiving the Vice President as a legislative officer, an executive officer, or both. It was noted that until the second half of the twentieth century, the Office of the Vice President was conceived as legislative. Funding for the Office appeared in budget lines relating to Congress and physically, the Vice President’s office was in the Capitol. Beginning with Walter Mondale’s service as Vice President, presidents …

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A Constitutional Afterthought: The Origins Of The Vice Presidency, 1787 To 1804, Edward J. Larson Apr 2017

A Constitutional Afterthought: The Origins Of The Vice Presidency, 1787 To 1804, Edward J. Larson

Pepperdine Law Review

At the origins of the office, even though the Vice President was, as its first occupant John Adams declared, “only one breath” away from the presidency, the Office of the Vice President was an afterthought of the Constitutional Convention. Never discussed during the first three months of the four-month long Convention, the Committee of Eleven introduced the vice presidency as a byproduct of how it resolved to fix the presidential selection process. Under this process, the Electoral College emerged, with each state assigned the same number of electors as its members in the House of Representatives and Senate. Each elector …

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Tourtellot: An Anatomy Of American Politics, Michigan Law Review Jun 1950