Election Law Commons^™

Constitutional Law - Elections - Proportional Representation, Gerald M. Stevens

Michigan Law Review

In November, 1936, the people of the city of New York voted to adopt a system of proportional representation for the election of members of the city council. Each borough was to elect its representatives at large rather than from single-member districts. Each voter was restricted to voting for one councilman; but he might indicate the order of his preference for as many candidates as he desired. Thus he should have marked his first choice by the numeral "1," his second "2," and similarly as many choices as he wished to express. By a system of vote-transferring his vote would …

Local Option--Effect Of Election In County Upon Prior Election Held In Municipality Within The County, Sam Milner

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - Discrimination Against Negroes - Control Of Party Membership, Everett S. Brown

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner, R. R. Grovey, allegedly a citizen of the United States and of Texas, and possessing all the qualifications of a voter, was refused a ballot for a Democratic party primary because he was of the Negro race. Grovey demanded ten dollars damages from the respondent, Albert Townsend, the county clerk, a state officer. The Revised Civil Statutes of Texas provide for primary elections and regulate absentee voting. When Grovey demanded of Townsend an absentee ballot it was refused in virtue of a resolution of the state Democratic convention of Texas, adopted May 24, 1932, as follows:

"Be it …

A "Majority Of The Electors" Means A Majority Of Those Voting On The Question, Frank N. Richman

Indiana Law Journal

(A criticism of State v. Swift, 69 Ind. 505; In re Denny, 156 Ind. 104; In re Boswell, 179 Ind. 292)

Primary Elections And The Constitution, Luther Harris Evans

Michigan Law Review

Recent attempts in Texas and elsewhere to exclude Negro voters from primary elections reveal the unsettled state of constitutional law in this field. Two struggles of principle, individualism versus police power and States' rights versus nationalism, are outlined in the judicial opinions reviewed below under the following headings: (I) Basis of state power over primaries; (II) Limitations on state power over primaries imposed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments; (III) Basis of state power over primaries for nominating United States Senators and Representatives; and (IV) Basis of national power over primaries for nominating United States Senators and Representatives.

Constitutional Law--The Constitutionality Of A Statute Providing For The Election Of County Superintendents By The People, Henry C. Smith

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Gerrymandering In Kentucky, Robert B. Stewart

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ley De Emergencia Electoral, República De Cuba. Senado

Mario Diaz Cruz Pamphlets

Publicada en la Gaceta Oficial el Miércoles 3 de Mayo de 1933

Congressional Redistricting And The Constitution, Harold M. Bowman

Michigan Law Review

Is congressional redistricting by state legislatures an exercise of the lawmaking function, subject to the governor's veto power? Is fairness in such redistricting secured today either by federal statute or by the federal Constitution? Of these two questions, posed by recent events, the first has been completely answered; the second has been answered in part only -- breeding in its answer new and troublesome problems.

Constitutional Law - Redistricting For Congressional Elections - Lawmaking Power Of The State

Michigan Law Review

By the latest reapportionment of the House of Representatives (tit. 2, U. S. C. A., art. 2a), passed in 1929, Minnesota received one less representative than it had had by the previous apportionment (Act of 1911, tit. 2, U. S. C. A., sec. 2). The state legislature of Minnesota passed an act dividing the state into congressional districts in accordance with this apportionment, and the governor vetoed the bill. Thereupon the state house of representatives, by resolution, directed the secretary of state to enroll the bill as a law on the ground that the veto of the governor was a …

Constitutional Law -Is Redistricting Of A State For Congressional Elections An Exercise Of The Lawmaking Power Of The State?

Michigan Law Review

The governor of Minnesota vetoed an act of the legislature dividing the state into congressional districts in accordance with the latest re-apportionment of the House of Representatives (46 Stat. 21, 26). Thereupon the state house of representatives by resolution directed the secretary of state to enroll the bill as a law. In an action started to test the validity of the law, held, Art. 1, Sec. 4 (1) of the Constitution of the United States provides that, "The time and place of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but …

Constitutional Law -Elections - Constitutionality Of The Corrupt Practices Act-The Kohler Case

Michigan Law Review

The relator brought an action to test the right of the defendant Kohler to the office of governor of the state of Wisconsin, asserting that his election was invalid for violation of the Corrupt Practices Act, particularly in that he had expended more than $100,000 for political purposes in violation of the provision of the act limiting such expenditures for candidates for governor to $4,000. The defendant demurred to the petition, asserting that the Corrupt Practices Act is void and unconstitutional as applied to the governor because (1) the statute seeks to prescribe either qualifications for the office of governor …

The Indianapolis Mayoralty Cases, Robert C. Brown

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Elections-Improper Marking Of Ballots

Michigan Law Review

The Australian ballot acts which have generally been adopted in this country were intended to bring about the twofold result of secrecy in voting and facility in the exercise of the franchise, and perhaps the most important provisions, having this object in view, are those regulating the marking of ballot papers by the voters. Unfortunately, however, the decisions on the question of what constitutes a valid voting mark are irreconcilably at variance. The conflict between decisions in different states might be explained by the fact that dissimilar statutes were being construed; but too often the courts have overruled their own …

Constitutional Validity Of Statute Barring Negroes From Primary Elections

Michigan Law Review

The history of suffrage in the South during the last thirty-five years has been largely a story of the adoption and administration of discriminatory regulations devised to catch the negro without debarring any considerable number of white people. This legal disfranchisement has been accomplished by property or educational qualifications possessed generally by whites but not by negroes, or by giving a great deal of discretion to election and registration officials, who, understanding what is expected of them, find quite uniformly that the negroes do not meet the requirements while the white applicants generally do. How the letter of the Fifteenth …

Book Reviews

Michigan Law Review

A collection of book reviews by multiple authors.

The Newberry Case, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

Senator Newberry of Michigan and sixteen others were convicted in the United States District Court on the charge that they "unlawfully and feloniously did conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to commit the offense [in the Newberry indictment] on his part of wilfully violating the act of Congress approved June 25, 1910, as amended, by giving, contributing, expending, and using and by causing to be given, contributed, expended and used in procuring his nomination and election at said primary and general elections, a greater sum than the laws of Michigan permitted and above ten thousand dollars," etc. The Act of …

Are Charges Against The Moral Character Of A Candidate For An Elective Office Conditionally Privileged, Jeremiah Smith

Michigan Law Review

Is candidacy for an elective office such a special occasion as to confer conditional privilege (prima facie protection) upon charges affecting the moral character of the candidate?

Are Charges Against The Moral Character Of A Candidate For An Elective Office Conditionally Privileged, Jeremiah Smith

Michigan Law Review

The above specific question, upon which there is a conflict of authority, cannot be intelligently discussed without first considering some features of the general law as to conditional privilege.

Direct Primary Legislation In Michigan, Arthur C. Millspaugh

Michigan Law Review

The first local direct nomination law in Michigan was passed ir 1901; the first general law in 1905. The public opinion, however, which looked to the abolition of the convention system of nomination, rather than to its legal regulation, had its inception as early as 1894. The unusually objectionable primaries of that year led to a pronounced but unorganized agitation for reform, in the course of which a few of the most radical proposed to abolish absolutely all conventions.1 The legislature of 1895 contented itself, however, with attempting the regulation of primaries and conventions, leaving most of the nominating machinery …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Legislating The Incumbent Out Of Office, W. Gordon Stoner

Michigan Law Review

Under the English common law the officer's right or interest in the office which he held was regarded as a property right, an incorporeal hereditament. Largely because of the inherent difference between the nature and incidents of the public office at common law and those of the public office in this country, this conception never gained general acceptance here. In a few cases, and particularly in the decisions of the courts of North Carolina, offices have been asserted to be the property of the rightful incumbent. In these decisions the officer's right has been regarded as less absolute, perhaps, than …

Note And Comment, George S. Burgess, Samuel H. Morris, William T. Hoffman

Michigan Law Review

Ten-Hour Labor Laws - The United States Supreme Court will soon have another opportunity to pass on the questions involved in that thorn. in the flesh of social reformers-the Bakeshop Case-if, as is probable, a case recently decided by the Mississippi Supreme Court is carried higher. Last year Mississippi enacted a sweeping ten-hour law making it unlawful for persons, firms or corporations engaged, in manufacturing or repairing "to work their employees more than ten hours per day except in cases of emergency or -where public necessity requires." Defendant, engaged in the manufacture of lumber and in the repair of its …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy - Jurisdiction of the District Court Exclusive Within Its District - A trustee in bankruptcy appointed, by the District 'Court for the District of Illinois filed a petition in the District Court for the Western District of Michigan for a summary order to require the respondent to surrender to the trustee certain moneys claimed as the property of the bankrupt. The respondent was a resident of the Eastern District of Michigan, and denied the jurisdiction of the court to issue an order to be enforced in another district. Held that the jurisdiction of the District Courts, in all bankruptcy …

The Recall And The Political Responsibility Of Judges, W. F. Dodd

Michigan Law Review

The movement for the recall of State officers is one which has became important only within the past three or four years. The first application of the recall as a modem institution in the United States appears to have been in Los Angeles in 19o3, where the institution was adopted in the amendment of the charter framed by that city. From Los Angeles the recall as applicable only to municipal officers spread to other California cities, and has now been rather widely adopted in other States. The first State constitutional amendment with respect to the recall, that of California in …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Adverse Possession--Actual Possession--Occupation of Part; Banks and Banking--Payment of Deposits on Forged Checks--Liability--Affirmative Defense; Banks and Banking--Payment of Check--Forged Indorsements; Cancellation of Instrument for Want of Consideration--Stauts Quo; Charities--Charitable Gift--Validity; Commerce--Interstate Commerce--Continuous Shipment--Violation of Elkins Act; Constitutional Law--Power of Judicial Department--Infringement on Executive; Conversion--Return of Goods as Defense; Conveyancing--Grantee's Name Left Blank; Courts--State Courts--Jurisdiction over National Banks; Criminal Law--Harmless Error in Admission of Evidence; Equity--Subrogation of Mortgagor to Rights of Mortgagee; Evidence--Admissibility of Statements in Corroboration of Testimony of Discredited Witness; Evidence--Other Offenses as Evidence of Offense Charged; Fixtures--Between Vendor of Chattel and Mortgagee of Land; Husband and Wife--Action Against …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Accident Insurance--Accident or Disease; Antenuptial Contract; Waiver of Performance; Bankruptcy--Arrest of Bankrupt--Exemption from Arrest; Bankruptcy--Effect upon a Surety of Bankrupt's Discharge; Charities--Validity--Certainty as to Purpose of the Gift; Constitutional Law--Equal Protectin of the Laws--Abrogation of Fellow-Servant Rule; Constitutional Law--Equal Protection of the Laws--Permit to Woman Pharmacist to Sell Liquors; Constracts--Public Policy; Corporations--Injury to Minority Stockholders--Remedy by Injunction; Corporations--Nature of a Corporation--Franchises; Deeds--Specific Performance of a Condition Subsequent; Elections--Primary Elections--Failure of Nominee to File Expense Account; Evidence--Parol Testimony--Admissibility; Husband and Wife--Personal Torts Between; Husband and Wife--Subrogation of Wife to Rights of Creditors for Necessaries; Inn-Keepers--Liability for Goods of Guest--Termination of Liability; …

Note And Comment, Clarence E. Eldridge, Ben H. Dewey, Mckee Robison

Michigan Law Review

Limitation of the Amount of the Common Carrier's Liability--Hepburn Act; Surety's Right to Exoneration; Protection of Rights of Bona Fide Purchasers of Personal Property; The Time at Which a Political Aspirant Becomes a Candidate Within the Meaning of the Modern Primary Election Law; When are Letters Written by a Husband to His Wife Not Privileged?

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Thomas L. O'Leary, Harry W. Isenberg, Samuel R. Williams, Karl B. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

Interstate Commerce and State Control of Foreign Corporations; Quantum of Evidence Necessary to Sustain a Plea of Justification, to a Civil Action of Libel or slander, for charging the Plaintiff with a Crime; Statutes Requiring the Appointment of Public Officers from Certain Political Parties; Proximate Cause; Police Regulation of the Business of Plumbing

Recent Important Decisions, Michigal Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Appeal and Error--Attorney's Interest in Case on Appeal--Contingent Fee; Bankruptcy--discharge--subsequent Action for Fraud; Bills and Notes--Usury No Defense Against a bona Fide Holder--Construction of Negotiable Instruments Statute; Boundaries--Street, Terminus A Quo; Carriers--Hepbern Act--State and Federal Courts--Phrase "Caused by It"; Chattel Mortgages--Payment without Notice of Assignment--Construction of a Mortgage Provision; Constitutional Law--Equal Protection of Laws--Statute Requiring Screens on Cars Operated by Corporations; Constitutional Law--Equal Protection of the Laws--Class Legislation; Contracts--No Recovery Under an Entire Illegal Contract; Contracts--Validity of Contract in Contemplation of Divorce; Courts--Federal Courts--authority of Decision of State Courts--"Telegraph"; Covenants--Breach of that Against Incumbrances; Elections--Ballots--Indication of Choice by Voter; Evidence--Facts …