Election Law Commons^™

Commission On The 21st Century Judiciary, Thomas J. Moyer

Akron Law Review

We approach the centennial of one of the most famous critiques of the legal profession with a new set of challenges facing the judiciary. When Roscoe Pound delineated “The Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice” in a 1906 speech to the American Bar Association, he attributed the dissatisfaction to what citizens decried as “the necessarily mechanical operation of legal rules.”

The “arbitrary technicalities,” as Pound described them, are still a frustration for those who represent themselves in legal disputes or those untrained in the liberties protected by those technicalities. Pound also noted that the public is frustrated …

Introduction To The Judicial Symposium, Deborah L. Cook

Akron Law Review

I am pleased to introduce this Judicial Symposium issue of the Akron Law Review. Having twice been elected to Ohio’s Supreme Court, and also having survived the federal judicial-selection process, my “battle scars” alone might qualify me to comment on the Symposium’s broad topic—judicial selection. But my status as an alumna together with my office’s proximity—almost within wireless range of the law school—probably played a larger role than experience and perspective in securing this assignment. The submissions published here pertain to the foundation of the rule of law—public confidence in courts. Each contributor to the Symposium acknowledges the fundamental ideals …

The Good American Legislator: Some Legal Process Perspectives And Possiblilities, Robert F. Blomquist

Akron Law Review

In this Article, I intend to sketch some theoretical attributes of the good American legislator...In Part I of the Article, I will discuss the original legal process jurisprudence of the 1940s and 1950s, and will attempt to tease out of this body of thought concepts that bear on defining the good American legislator. In Part II, I turn, successively, to the three offshoots of the original legal process material, written over the last twenty years: process formalists, process progressives and process pragmatists. I do this in order to uncover insights that might further our understanding of the good American legislator. …

The Constitutionality And Legality Of Internet Voting Post-Shelby County, Logan T. Mohs

Duke Law & Technology Review

The technological and electoral landscapes have changed drastically since the turn of the century. While it once might have made sense to view voting online as unconstitutional, as opposed to merely impractical, the expanded range of Internet access for minority communities has made that argument tenuous at best. While there still may exist practical and political reasons to avoid Internet voting, the Constitution no longer stands as an effective wall against the practice. Furthermore, the primary statutory obstacle to the implementation of Internet voting on a local level, the Voting Rights Act, has been greatly weakened by the recent Supreme …

Interstate Agreement For Electoral Reform, Adam Schleifer

Akron Law Review

This Article will consider how an interstate agreement pursuant to Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution could provide a subconstitutional legal alternative to the much-debated and oft-maligned political mechanics of the Electoral College system. The current gloss on the Compacts Clause and the Supreme Court jurisprudence relating to interstate agreements may make it possible for a number of states to come together to obviate the Electoral College without resort to constitutional amendment. More modestly, investigating how this might be so provides an opportunity for applied analysis of the underscrutinized field of interstate agreements, which may prove useful as …

Hopeful Losers? A Moral Case For Mixed Electoral Systems, Loren King

Political Science Faculty Publications

Liberal democracies encourage citizen participation and protect our freedoms, yet these regimes elect politicians and decide important issues with electoral and legislative systems that are less inclusive than other arrangements. Some citizens inevitably have more influence than others. Is this a problem? Yes, because similarly just but more inclusive systems are possible. Political theorists and philosophers should be arguing for particular institutional forms, with particular geographies, consistent with justice.

Les démocraties libérales encouragent la participation citoyenne et protègent nos libertés. Pourtant, ces régimes élisent des politiciens et décident de problèmes importants via les systèmes électoral et législatif, qui sont moins …

Austerity, The European Council, And The Institutional Future Of The European Union: A Proposal To Strengthen The Presidency Of The European Council, Federico Fabbrini

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article contextualizes the resilience of austerity in Europe, explaining it in light of the transformations in the EU system of governance. As the article maintains, since the eruption of the Eurocrisis, the European Council-the body congressing the heads of state and government of the EU member states together with its President and the President of the European Commission-has risen to the center of EU governance. In an intergovernmental institution such as the European Council, however, larger and wealthier states have been able to impose their preferences on other states-a development that is at odds with the anti-hegemonic nature of …

Mapping The Treasure State: What States Can Learn From Redistricting In Montana, Caitlin Boland Aarab, The Honorable Jim Regnier

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Corruption, Usha Rodrigues

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court recently held that campaign contributions under $5200 do not create a “cognizable risk of corruption.” It was wrong. This Essay describes a nexus of timely contributions and special-interest legislation. In the most noteworthy case, a CEO made a first-time $1000 donation to a member of Congress. The next day that representative introduced a securities bill tailored to the interests of the CEO’s firm.

Armed with this real-world account of how small-dollar campaign contributions coincided with favorable legislative action, the Essay reads McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission with a critical eye. In McCutcheon the Supreme Court assumed that …

Chooseyourjudges.Org: Treating Elected Judges As Politicians, Ric Simmons

Akron Law Review

In order to combat this problem of voter ignorance, I recently created a website designed to provide voters with information about judicial elections...Creating the website posed unique practical challenges, such as how to gather the information about the candidates and how to present it to the voter in a way that was meaningful and useful to a non-lawyer. But it also raised even more fundamental questions about the purpose of judicial elections and the role voters are meant to play in the process. This Article describes these challenges and questions, and then proposes my own initial solutions to them, in …

Why The Judicial Elections Debate Matters Less Than You Think: Retention As The Cornerstone Of Independence And Accountability, Layne S. Keele

Akron Law Review

This Article attempts to reframe the age-old judicial election arguments into a discussion about the importance of the retention decision, in order to draw out the areas of true disagreement in the judicial independence/judicial accountability debate. I argue that the core difficulties in balancing the desire for judicial independence with the desire for judicial accountability stem primarily from the judicial retention decision, regardless of whether retention is obtained by some form of reelection or through a form of reappointment. I then propose a two-term system for putting judges on state high courts, in which (1) high court judges sit for …

Transformation: Turning Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Into Something It Is Not, J. Christian Adams

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Auxiliary Protections: Why The Founders’ Bicameral Congress Depended On Senators Elected By State Legislatures, Vince Eisinger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Voter Rights And Civil Rights Era Cold Cases: Section Five And The Five Cities Project, Paula C. Johnson

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

In Re 2012 Legislative Districting: Maryland High Court Decision Exemplifies Lackluster Federal Guidance On Redistricting, Matthew Lagarde

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond Transparency: Rethinking Election Reform From An Open Government Perspective, Michael Halberstam

Seattle University Law Review

During the past decade, “transparency” has become a focus of democratic governance. Open government and right-to-know regimes have been around at least since the 1970s. They include measures like open meeting laws, campaign finance disclosure, lobbying registration, and freedom of information laws. But the Open Government projects— variously referred to as e-democracy, Open Data, or Government 2.0— have evolved into something new and different. They view transparency not primarily as a right to know, but as a condition for a more efficient, intelligent, and cooperative form of democratic government. This Article considers how various election reform projects fit with the …

An “Equal Sovereignty” Principle Born In Northwest Austin, Texas, Raised In Shelby County, Alabama, David Kow

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

The Path Forward From Shelby County V. Holder, Janet W. Steverson

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Grandpa, Charles Walker

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Arc Of Injustice: Pre- And Post-Decision Thoughts On Shelby County V. Holder, Janai S. Nelson

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.