Election Law Commons^™

Spies, Trolls, And Bots: Combating Foreign Election Interference In The Marketplace Of Ideas, Nahal Kazemi

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

Foreign disinformation operations on social media pose a significant and rapidly evolving risk, particularly when aimed at American elections. We must urgently and effectively address this form of election interference. This Article examines potential responses to those risks, through a review of the unique characteristics, both practical and legal, of political advertising on social media platforms. This Article analyzes proposed legislative responses to foreign disinformation, noting that no single proposed law to date adequately addresses the threats and challenges posed by foreign disinformation. This Article considers the election law landscape in which the proposed laws would operate. It evaluates the …

Fraudulent Vote Dilution, Jason Marisam

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

In recent years, the Republican Party and conservative groups have brought lawsuits that advance a novel type of voting claim, which this Article calls fraudulent vote dilution. This claim asserts that an election rule is unconstitutional because it makes it too easy to cast fraudulent ballots that, when tabulated, will dilute the strength of valid and honest ballots. With the 2024 election nearing, the Republican Party may again test fraudulent vote dilution claims in court, as it seeks injunctions to make liberal election rules stricter in ways that make it harder for Democratic voters to cast ballots. This Article advances …

Puerto Rican Presidential Voting Rights: Why Precedent Should Be Overturned, And Other Options For Suffrage, Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco

Brooklyn Law Review

The United States has continued to hold Puerto Rico as a colony, much like the British empire did the US colonies, and has given it no clear path to incorporation, statehood, or independent sovereignty. It has also denied its citizens the right to vote for their president and have voting representation in Congress. Current case law regarding Puerto Rican presidential voting rights and voting representation in Congress rests on precedent that dates almost as far back as its acquisition—the infamous Insular Cases. This case law is inconsistent with prior precedent, constitutional principles, and does not account for Puerto Rico’s contributions …

New Hurdles To Redistricting Reform: State Evasion, Moore, And Partisan Gerrymandering, Manoj Mate

Connecticut Law Review

Proponents of fair districting reforms continue to face challenges in seeking to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering. Even in states that have successfully enacted redistricting reforms, state actors have been able to evade compliance, and state courts have been unable to guarantee fair districts. In addition, the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. Harper could also limit state court efforts to guarantee fair districts. This Article argues that state evasion and Moore threaten to undermine the efficacy of fair districting norms recognized by state courts or enacted through either state political processes. Moore could create a one-way ratchet by …

“When Did African Americans Get The Right To Vote In Georgia?”, Marc T. Treadwell

Mercer Law Review

Most know that the post‑Civil War Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed citizens of all races, or at least male citizens of all races, the right to vote. But notwithstanding the keen interest today in voting rights and alleged voter suppression and that well-known Fifteenth Amendment, few know that for decades African Americans were banned outright from voting in primary elections that determined state and local leaders in many Southern states. In the post‑Reconstruction South, the Democratic Party controlled every facet of state politics and government. The Party’s whites‑only primary elections ineluctably determined the outcome of general elections. The party did not allow …

New Hurdles To Redistricting Reform: State Evasion, Moore, And Partisan Gerrymandering, Manoj Mate

Journal Articles

Proponents of fair districting reforms continue to face challenges in seeking to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering. Even in states that have successfully enacted redistricting reforms, state actors have been able to evade compliance, and state courts have been unable to guarantee fair districts. In addition, the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. Harper could also limit state court efforts to guarantee fair districts. This Article argues that state evasion and Moore threaten to undermine the efficacy of fair districting norms recognized by state courts or enacted through either state political processes. Moore could create a one-way ratchet by …

Voting While Trans: How Voter Id Laws Unconstitutionally Compel The Speech Of Trans Voters, Emmy Maluf

Michigan Law Review

Thirty-five states currently request or require identification documents for in-person voting, and these requirements uniquely impact transgender voters. Of the more than 697,800 voting-eligible trans people living in states that conduct primarily in-person elections, almost half (43 percent) lack documents that correctly reflect their name or gender. When an ID does not align with a trans voter’s gender presentation, the voter may be disenfranchised—either because a poll worker denies them the right to cast a ballot or because the voter ID requirement chills their participation in the first place. Further, when a trans voter presents an ID that does not …

Destined To Deceive: The Need To Regulate Deepfakes With A Foreseeable Harm Standard, Matthew D. Weiner

Michigan Law Review

Political campaigns have always attracted significant attention, and politicians have often been the subjects of controversial—even outlandish—discourse. In the last several years, however, the risk of deception has drastically increased due to the rise of “deepfakes.” Now, practically anyone can make audiovisual media that are both highly believable and highly damaging to a candidate. The threat deepfakes pose to our elections has prompted several states and Congress to seek legislative remedies that ensure recourse for victims and hold bad actors liable. These recent attempts at deepfake laws are open to attack from two different loci. First, there is a question …

Yes, Trump’S Pacs Really Can Pay His Legal Fees, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

Campaign finance data released at the end of January 2024 revealed that Save America, a political action committee founded and controlled by former President Donald Trump, spent more than US$50 million in 2023 on legal fees resulting from Trump’s multiple criminal and civil cases.

OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit tracking campaign funds, found that other Trump-aligned organizations also paid a combined $10 million in additional legal fees for Trump in 2023.

Though I have spent much of my career as a scholar of campaign finance law, I’m not certain whether that use of campaign donations is legal under federal election law. …

Democratic Erosion And The United States Supreme Court, Jenny Breen

Utah Law Review

For many decades, confidence in American institutions and political culture consistently led scholars to sideline questions about “regime change” in the United States. And for many years, that approach seemed justified. Democratic institutions were firmly rooted and stable, and American voters participated in free and fair elections that resulted in the peaceful transfer of power between parties and candidates. Then came the campaign of Donald Trump and all that has followed since, including open challenges to the most basic and fundamental democratic norms. These changes have led many voters, commentators, and scholars to ask: Is democracy eroding in the United …

The Color Of Money: How Our Broken Campaign Finance System Fuels Racial Inequality, Blair T. Page

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The laws upholding our campaign finance system are inadequate and under-enforced. These problems are felt disproportionately by African American voters. Election law experts agree that the structure and enforcement authority of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) severely limits the ability of the agency to achieve its goals. Several Supreme Court decisions have also limited the ability of Congress to control campaign contributions and expenditures. Tracking expenditures from corporations, groups, and individuals (to the extent possible), will show the link between favorable outcomes for these groups and their detrimental effects on African Americans. While closing racial disparities in wealth allows for …

Baer On Election Law, P. Kevin Brobson

Duquesne Law Review

When I attended my first appellate judges conference in June 2010 as a newly seated Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge, my wife Lauren and I had the pleasure of dining with then-Justice Max Baer and his wife Beth. Prior to that, Max and I had just one, brief conversation by telephone. We had never previously met in person. Wonderful friendships were formed during that dinner.

Just Call Me Max, Maureen Lally-Green

Duquesne Law Review

Soon after Justice Max Baer was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 2003, he met my husband, Stephen Ross Green, Esq. Ross greeted him with the traditional title lawyers use in professional gatherings: "Justice." Max would have none of that and collegially said, "With you, I'm not Justice Baer. Just call me Max." From that day on whenever Ross and I were with him, he was careful to "call" him "Max."

Moore News About The Independent State Legislature Doctrine, Bruce Ledewitz

Duquesne Law Review

The big news about the Independent State Legislature Doctrine (Doctrine) is that, despite the expectations of most observers, including me,¹ the Supreme Court did not fully adopt the Doctrine in Moore v. Harper.² The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Roberts, and joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson, held that state courts may apply their state constitutions to state legislation affecting federal elections in the course of what the opinion called the "ordinary exercise of state judicial review."³

Brnovich: Extratextual Textualism, Maureen A. Edobor

Scholarly Articles

This Article provides a comprehensive analysis of Brnovich v. Democratic National Convention, which purports to create a new standard for Section 2 claims under the Voting Rights Act, by situating the critique in the ratifying-era history and original intentions of the VRA’s constitutional counterpart, the Fifteenth Amendment. Brnovich is necessarily examined through a historical and political framework, identifying throughlines from the Reconstruction Era original intentions for the Fifteenth Amendment, distilled from Congressional debates, the VRA’s initially expansive Supreme Court interpretation in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, and Congress’ Section 2 amendments in 1982, rebuking the Court’s attempts to erode the legal …

Henderson And The Objective Observer Standard: The Future Of Race-Conscious Standards Post-Students For Fair Admissions, Gabriela Dionisio

Seattle University Law Review

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, which struck down race-conscious admissions policies. Within just a year after its ruling, Students for Fair Admissions has already had a sweeping impact, reaching beyond higher education. Although the Supreme Court did not indicate whether Students for Fair Admissions applies to sectors beyond higher education, law firms, and other employers have already modified their diversity policies and initiatives, erasing race and company diversity considerations. Given those dramatic changes, there is growing fear that Students for Fair Admissions …

Same Crime, Different Time: Sentencing Disparities In The Deep South & A Path Forward Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Hailey M. Donovan

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The American obsession with crime and punishment can be tracked over the last half-century, as the nation’s incarceration rate has risen astronomically. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people in the United States has increased more than sevenfold to over 2.3 million, outpacing both crime and population growth considerably. While the rise itself is undoubtedly bleak, a more troubling truth lies just below the surface. Not all states contribute equally to American mass incarceration. Rather, states have vastly different incarceration rates. Unlike at the federal level, …

A Restatement Of Democracy, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Debates about democracy are everywhere. Extremists, whether on the streets of Washington or Brasilia, perpetrate violence under the banner of democracy. But what do we mean when we talk about democracy? The debates, in the streets, popular media, or pages of academic journals, leave one wanting for depth and precision. This Article thus aims to provide an analytically useful model of Western democracy by surveying the vast and complex literature and distilling from that literature a series of core elements. From this exercise, this Article identifies the following four elements of democracy: majoritarianism, individual contestation, reason-giving, and deliberation. Although the …

On The Legality Of Defrauding The Public, Wes Henricksen

Marquette Law Review

Speech used to intentionally mislead others to gain a tangible benefit while causing harm to the one deceived or to others is generally labeled “fraud.” This term is used in both legal and nonlegal contexts. Where speech used to defraud satisfies the elements of a tort or a crime, it becomes “actionable fraud.” Categories of actionable fraud include common law deceit, securities fraud, and wire fraud. But taken together, these laws address harmful dishonesty in an inconsistent manner. While they broadly prohibit deceiving individual victims, they often allow deceiving the public at large. As a result, it is often lawful …

Public Primacy In Corporate Law, Dorothy S. Lund

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores the malleability of agency theory by showing that it could be used to justify a “public primacy” standard for corporate law that would direct fiduciaries to promote the value of the corporation for the benefit of the public. Employing agency theory to describe the relationship between corporate management and the broader public sheds light on aspects of firm behavior, as well as the nature of state contracting with corporations. It also provides a lodestar for a possible future evolution of corporate law and governance: minimize the agency costs created by the divergence of interests between management and …