Election Law Commons^™

A More Sensible Approach To Regulating Independent Expenditures: Defending The Constitutionality Of The Fed's New Express Advocacy Standard, Michael D. Leffel

Michigan Law Review

Campaign finance reformers argue that the "unholy alliance of private money and public elections" has created "a crisis of confidence in our elected officials." The now-deceased campaign reform advocate Philip M. Stem summed up the role of money in campaigns this way: "[M]oney-power has replaced people-power as the driving force in American politics and the determinant of electoral victory." One form of "money-power" in elections that received a great deal of attention in the last election cycle was "independent expenditures." Independent expenditures are funds spent by interested individuals or groups - usually in the form of television or radio advertisements …

Indirect Effects Of Direct Election: A Structural Examination Of The Seventh Amendment, Vikram D. Amar

Vanderbilt Law Review

Federalism is hot. Courts are trying to preserve it.' Politicians are trying to reinvent it. And academics are trying just to understand it. Inspired by this renewed interest in the relationship between federal and state governments, I decided to undertake a fresh examination of the Seventeenth Amendment which requires direct election-by the People of each State-of members of the United States Senate. After all, although direct election has not received extensive academic attention, the amendment's removal of state legislatures from the federal electoral process would seem to have significantly reworked the Constitution's federal framework; state legislative election of Senators was …

“So Tall Within” - The Legacy Of Sojourner Truth, Peggy Cooper Davis

Cardozo Law Review

I take my text from Professor Harris's rich discussion of Sojourner Truth's life narrative. I begin, as Professor Harris began, with Truth's assertion of parental right. When her five-year-old son, Peter, was sent by his owner from New York to Alabama, Truth agonized over the loss of contact between herself and her child. She feared that Peter would lose the opportunity, owed to him under New York law, of liberation at the age of twenty-one. Truth's insistent cry, "I'll have my child again," was initially dismissed by incredulous slaveholders. But it became a theme of struggle as she repeatedly walked …

Finding Sojourner’S Truth: Race, Gender, And The Institution Of Property, Cheryl I. Harris

Cardozo Law Review

This Article begins with the signature speech of Sojourner Truth, one of a handful of Black women of the nineteenth century who became an important figure in the abolitionist movement, a national figure in her own time, and an icon of both historical and contemporary feminism. As the emblematic Black woman of her time and as a Black woman that both suffered under and transcended slavery, Sojourner Truth was and is a critically situated subject through which to examine the crosscutting constructions of race and gender forged under slavery.

Section 6: Voting Rights, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law Ii: The Law And Politics Of Constitutional Cases, Oregon Law Institute, Susan P. Graber, W. Michael Gillette, Rebecca R. Davis, David Schuman, Claudia E. Burton, David Heynderickx, Kelly W.G. Clark

Oregon Law Institute, 1996

Course Materials from the October 11, 1996 Program in Portland

Constitutional Law—Equal Protection - Race Shall Not Be The Predominant Factor In Congressional District Drawing, Kevin G. Beckham

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Three-Judge District Court In Voting Rights Litigation, Michael E. Solimine

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In recent Terms the Supreme Court has heard numerous appeals from the decisions of three-judge district courts in controversial Voting Rights Act cases as well as in challenges to congressional districts designed allegedly to facilitate the election of members of minority groups. Although the cases themselves have been followed closely, the institution of the three-judge district court itself has received relatively little attention, even though Congress passed legislation in 1976 that restricted the three-judge court's jurisdiction to reapportionment and certain Voting Rights Act cases. In this Article, Professor Solimine argues that numerous problems attend the formation and operation of such …

United States V. Hays: A Winnowing Of Standing To Sue In Racial Gerrymandering Claims, Jack Pritchard

Mercer Law Review

In United States v. Hays, the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether individuals who reside outside racially gerrymandered districts have standing to sue on racial gerrymandering claims. In May 1992, Louisiana passed Act 42 of its Regular Session, which redrew its district boundaries to form two majority-minority districts -Districts 4 and 2. District 4 was a "Z-shaped creature" that zigzagged through twenty-eight parishes and five major cities, yet the Act was precleared by the United States Attorney General. The plaintiffs, Hays et al., were residents of Lincoln Parish, which was located in the newly formed District …

Appellate Court Voting Rules, Scott B. Smith

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the 1996 term, the United States Supreme Court made a candid confession about its voting practices. In Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, the Court overruled Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co. and recognized that when a justice defers to the majority against his or her own reasoning inconclusive precedent results. Union Gas was particularly unusual because Justice White switched his vote to assure a result in a three-remedy case where none of the three remedies had the support of a majority. In Seminole Tribe, the Court admitted Union Gas "has, since its issuance, been of questionable precedential value, largely …

The Fifteenth Amendment And "Political Rights", Akhil Reed Amar

Cardozo Law Review

Professor Xi Wang has offered us an altogether exemplary paper on black suffrage. Rather than trying to criticize it, I shall attempt to extend it by picking up where he left off. My main text is the Fifteenth Amendment. I would like to suggest that the best interpretation of the Fifteenth Amendment would read it as encompassing a cluster of political rights; the Amendment protects not only the right to vote, but also the right to hold office, the right to be voted for, the right to vote in a legislature, the right to serve on a jury, and even …

Black Suffrage And The Redefinition Of American Freedom, 1860-1870, Xi Wang

Cardozo Law Review

One of the most important outcomes of the Civil War was the establishment of a new constitutional order. Under this new order, African Americans, a people whose essential human rights had been denied under the old constitutional order, were constitutionally emancipated from slavery and recognized as American citizens. They received the privileges and immunities that white Americans had automatically assumed. Male black Americans also received the right to vote. This new order, as embraced by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, was a truly remarkable achievement of Reconstruction. What is additionally significant is that these Amendments became …

Democratic National Committee V. Edward J. Rollins: Politics As Usual Or Unusual Politics?, Rachel E. Berry

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Skunk In An Onion Patch Buchanan Threatens Dole If He Doesn't Shut Up-And America If He Does, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Regardless of his finish in the primaries, Mr. Buchanan is determined to be heard from at the Republican National Convention in late summer. Mr. [Bob Dole] would like his endorsement for the votes it would provide, but cannot be serious about hoping "that Pat Buchanan would find it in his heart as a good Republican to join forces and close ranks." Can good Republicans be outright bigots? Does Mr. Dole have a political death wish?

What's in Mr. Buchanan's heart is the cause. "We'll go forward," he vowed on national television, "fighting for the cause." But the purity of the …

Vote Dilution And The Census Undercount: A State-By-State Remedy, Christopher M. Taylor

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that groups seeking to correct underrepresentation caused by the differential undercount do not have standing to sue the Secretary of Commerce but that they can sue their state governments in an effort to force them to use the best population data available in the construction of congressional districts. Part I details the deeply rooted character of the differential undercount, describes statistical means that could have been employed to adjust the 1990 census, and demonstrates that the adjusted count surpasses the official census as an accurate representation of the true population. Part II examines recent litigation that has …

Heading Back To The Thicket, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Fcc, Indecency, And Anti-Abortion Political Advertising, Lili Levi

Articles

No abstract provided.

Drawing The Line On Incumbency Protection, Sally Dworak-Fisher

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In an effort to fill the void in scholarly debate and legal analysis, this Note evaluates incumbency protection as a redistricting principle and analyzes its treatment in various court opinions. After arguing that protecting incumbents is not a legitimate redistricting objective, this Note illustrates how the Supreme Court and lower federal courts have been reluctant to pass judgment on incumbency protection. This Note contrasts this "hands-off" approach to the strict scrutiny afforded claims of racial gerrymandering and argues that such an approach enables incumbents to manipulate the Voting Rights Act for their self-interest. Additionally, this Note argues that incumbents, a …

The Term Limits Case, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In U.S. Term Limits, the Court reviewed an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution, adopted in 1992, that made a candidate for the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives ineligible to have his or her name placed on the ballot for national election if that person had previously been elected to three or more terms as a member of the House, or two or more terms as a member of the Senate. Following a taxpayer's complaint seeking declaratory relief, the state circuit court held that this amendment violated the Qualifications Clauses in Article I, sections 2 and 3, of the U.S. …

The 1868-9 Select Committee On Parliamentary And Municipal Elections : Insights Into The Mid-Victorian Electoral System, Justin Wasserman

Theses : Honours

No abstract provided.

The Emptiness Of Majority Rule, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Geographically Sexual?: Advancing Lesbian And Gay Interests Through Proportional Representation, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the 1993 New York City School Board elections, a system of proportional representation allowed lesbians and gay men to elect representatives of their choice. In response to the School Board's plan to introduce the Children of the Rainbow Curriculum, the New York City chapter of the Christian Coalition, an organization of the Christian Right, began an opposition campaign with the slogan "No Sodom on the Hudson" that pitted parents of color against so-called “rich white gays.” Having succeeded in forcing the school chancellor's resignation, the Christian Coalition formulated a plan for the takeover of all New York City …

Shut Up And Vote: A Critique Of Deliberative Democracy And The Life Of Talk, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Identifying The Harm In Racial Gerrymandering Claims, Samuel Issacharoff, Thomas C. Goldstein

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article proceeds along two lines. First, it reviews the theories of harm set forth in the Justices' various opinions, i.e., the articulated risks to individual rights that may or may not be presented by racial gerrymandering. What is learned from this survey is that Shaw and its progeny serve different purposes for different members of the Court. Four members of the Shaw, Miller v. Johnson, and United States v. Hays majorities-Chief Justice Rehnquist, along with Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas- are far more concerned with "race" than "gerrymandering." In particular, they consider all race-based government classifications to be inherently …

Can Minority Voting Rights Survive Miller V. Johnson, Laughlin Mcdonald

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Part I of this Article reviews the congressional redistricting process in Georgia, particularly the State's efforts to comply with the Voting Rights Act and avoid the dilution of minority voting strength. Part II describes the plaintiffs' constitutional challenge and the State's asserted defenses, or more accurately its lack of asserted defenses. Part III argues that the decision of the majority rests upon wholly false assumptions about the colorblindness of the political process and the harm caused by remedial redistricting. Part IV notes the expansion in Miller of the cause of action first recognized in Shaw v. Reno. Part V …

The Empitness Of Majority Rule, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In this Note, the author steers away from the current substantive debates surrounding the Voting Rights Act, its various amendments, and the "correct" way of interpreting its intended benefits and constitutionally accepted mandates. Instead, indirectly joins the many "radical" voices advocating for a departure from the majoritarian stranglehold-the decision-making process where fifty percent plus one of the voting population carry the election. The author does so not by suggesting yet another mechanism by which representatives may be elected, but by critiquing the perceived underpinnings of our democratic system of government. The author does not profess to delineate a definitive interpretation …

When Congress Just Says No: Deterrence Theory And The Inadequate Enforcement Of The Federal Election Campaign Act, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Race And Place: Geographic And Transcendent Community In The Post-Shaw Era, Lisa A. Kelly

Articles

Race and Place is a narrative article, both fictional and true, dedicated to exploring the dual realities of a geographic and transcendent community in the context of the Supreme Court's recent decisions in Shaw v. Reno and Miller v. Johnson. The Court has allowed and affirmed constitutional challenges to districts drawn to empower African-Americans "with nothing in common but the color of their skin." The Article draws upon history, literature, political science, and law to critique the Court's assumptions concerning the challenged districts and to demonstrate the existence of African-American communities of interest which are both geographically bounded by …

Judicial Selection In Michigan - Time For A Change?, John W. Reed

Articles

How are we to choose those who judge us? To whom do we entrust the responsibility of protecting our liberties and the power to determine our rights and liabilities? We look for men and women of integrity, diligence, legal ability, and judicial temperament, chosen by methods that balance judicial independence and public accountability.1