Law Commons^™

A Political Canary: An Empirical Study Of The Correlation Between Hatch Act Complaints And How The Electoral College Votes, Raimund Stieger

Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers

The American public witnesses hundreds, if not thousands, of violations of the Hatch Act—an administrative law designed to keep partisan politics out of Government—each year. This study aimed to determine whether there is a correlation between the number of Hatch Act complaints reported in the fiscal year leading up to a Presidential election and how divisive the political landscape is during that Presidential election. Political divisiveness was defined as how close the winning Presidential candidate was to receive fifty percent of the electoral college. To assess the theory that an increase in Hatch Act complaints is an early indicator of …

Making A List And Checking It Twice, David Spratt

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Public Financing, George Bush, And Barack Obama: Why The Publicly Funded Campaign Does Not Work, And What We Can Do To Fix It, Jordan Acker

Legislation and Policy Brief

Today, there are very different public financing rules for both the general and primary election. In the primary, if a candidate meets the requirements for public funding, the federal government will match up to $250 of an individual’s total contributions to an eligible candidate. In order for this to occur, candidates must adopt strict finance limits. In the general election, if an eligible candidate accepts public funding, he or she must cease fundraising after the conclusion of the primaries, and spend the public funding that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) grants them. This money covers all campaign expenditures, except for …

Public Financing's Last Breaths, Kellen Clemons

Legislation and Policy Brief

After this peculiar and unique election cycle, the public financing laws will have to be redeveloped in order to have any bearing on future elections. Without some change to the rules, candidates will continue to opt out and use the Internet and grassroots initiatives to out-raise one another, to the possible disadvantage of the goals of the public finance system. In essence, this election cycle has seen politics destroy the current public financing system. Through the advisory opinions of the Federal Election Commission and the decisions of the major candidates to opt out of public financing, the role of the …

The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct And Political Campaign Activities, Lauren Gilius

Legislation and Policy Brief

This article will examine whether the American Bar Association’s (“ABA”) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Model Rules”) should apply to lawyers in situations where a lawyer-candidate or a lawyer involved in a disingenuous political campaign activity, particularly when the lawyer was not convicted on criminal charges. Though the American Bar Association said that the Model Rules apply to dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation by lawyers, even when acting in a non-professional capacity, the support for applying the Rules in this context is lacking.

This article will first briefly discuss the development of applying the Model Rules to the non-professional conduct, …

Help America Vote Act Enforcement, Tiana Butcher

Legislation and Policy Brief

Although the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) features extensive mandates, its enforcement provisions of are weaker than those found in previous federal election reform laws, including the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act. Activists argue this limited enforcement power is a failing of the Act. Congress may have chosen to adopt weak enforcement mechanisms due to political posturing, lack of funding, faulty technology, or lobbying by the states. Regardless of the reason behind this choice, stronger enforcement mechanisms in HAVA would, paradoxically, fail to encourage election reform or deter election reform altogether.

Defending The Majoritarian Court, Amanda Frost

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Racial Paradox And Eclipse: Obama As Balm For What Ails Us, Camille Nelson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION The 2008 political season provided us with sublime political spec- tacle. The contest for presidential nominee of the Democratic National party was an exciting and historic race. The subsequent presidential race whipped Americans, and indeed many throughout the world, into a frenzy. Never before did two white women and a black man exemplify the dreams and aspirations of so many. People the world over hoped and sought to change the course of history through the selection of the Presi- dent and Vice President of the United States of America. There appeared to be a captivating yet ironic handwringing around …

Peace Agreement Drafting Guide: Darfur, Paul Williams, Matthew Simpson, Christina Sheetz

Books

The Public International Law & Policy Group's (PILPG) Peace Agreement Drafting Guide: Darfur is a comprehensive peace agreement drafting handbook tailored to the upcoming Darfur peace negotiations. The drafting guide presents core elements of relevant topics, outlines the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) provisions related to those topics, and provides sample language parties may wish to consider when drafting future provisions. The Darfur Peace Agreement is divided into six chapters: Power Sharing, Wealth Sharing, Ceasefire and Final Security Arrangements, Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation, General Provisions, and Implementation Modalities and Timelines. The Darfur Peace Agreement also includes six annextures detailing previous agreements …