How Strict Voter Registration Laws Will Affect Transgender Voters,
2014
Loyola University Chicago, School of Law
How Strict Voter Registration Laws Will Affect Transgender Voters, Angela Sukurs
Public Interest Law Reporter
No abstract provided.
Citizens United, States Divided: An Empirical Analysis Of Independent Political Spending,
2014
University of Connecticut - Storrs
Citizens United, States Divided: An Empirical Analysis Of Independent Political Spending, Douglas M. Spencer, Abby Wood
Indiana Law Journal
What effect has Citizens United v. FEC had on independent spending in American politics? Previous attempts to answer this question have focused solely on federal elections, where there is no baseline for comparing changes in spending behavior. We overcome this limitation by examining the effects of Citizens United as a natural experiment on the states. Before Citizens United, about half of the states banned corporate independent expenditures and thus were “treated” by the Supreme Court’s decision, which invalidated these state laws. We rely on recently released state-level data to compare spending in “treated” states to spending in the “control” states, …
Voting Rights Law And Policy In Transition,
2014
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Voting Rights Law And Policy In Transition, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel E. Charles
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
State's Rights, Last Rites, And Voting Rights,
2014
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
State's Rights, Last Rites, And Voting Rights, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel Charles
Articles by Maurer Faculty
There are two ways to read the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County Alabama v. Holder: as a minimalist decision or as a decision that undermines the basic infrastructure of voting rights policy, law, and jurisprudence. In this Article, we present the case for reading Shelby County as deeply destabilizing. We argue that Shelby County has undermined three assumptions that are foundational to voting rights policy, law, and jurisprudence. First, the Court has generally granted primacy of the federal government over the states. Second, the Court has deferred to Congress particularly where Congress is regulating at the intersection of race …
Universalism And Civil Rights (With Notes On Voting Rights After Shelby),
2014
University of Michigan Law School
Universalism And Civil Rights (With Notes On Voting Rights After Shelby), Samuel R. Bagenstos
Articles
After the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, voting rights activists proposed a variety of legislative responses. Some proposals sought to move beyond measures that targeted voting discrimination based on race or ethnicity. They instead sought to eliminate certain problematic practices that place too great a burden on voting generally. Responses like these are universalist, because rather than seeking to protect any particular group against discrimination, they formally provide uniform protections to everyone. As Bruce Ackerman shows, voting rights activists confronted a similar set of questions—and at least some of them opted for a universalist approach—during the campaign …
The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra Preclearance After Shelby County,
2014
University of Connecticut School of Law
The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra Preclearance After Shelby County, Douglas M. Spencer, Christopher S. Elmendorf
Faculty Articles and Papers
The Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) effectively enjoined the preclearance regime of the Voting Rights Act. The Court deemed the coverage formula, which determines the jurisdictions subject to preclearance, insufficiently grounded in current conditions. This Article proposes a new, legally defensible approach to coverage based on between-state differences in the proportion of voting age citizens who subscribe to negative stereotypes about racial minorities and who vote accordingly. The new coverage formula could also account for racially polarized voting and minority population size, but, for constitutional reasons, subjective discrimination by voters is the essential criterion. We demonstrate that …
Election Law's Lochnerian Turn,
2014
University of Michigan Law School
Election Law's Lochnerian Turn, Ellen D. Katz
Articles
This panel has been asked to consider whether "the Constitution [is] responsible for electoral dysfunction."' My answer is no. The electoral process undeniably falls well short of our aspirations, but it strikes me that we should look to the Supreme Court for an accounting before blaming the Constitution for the deeply unsatisfactory condition in which we find ourselves.
The Forgotten Law Of Lobbying,
2014
Fordham University School of Law
The Forgotten Law Of Lobbying, Zephyr Teachout
Faculty Scholarship
For most of American history, until the 1950s, courts treated paid lobbying as a civic wrong, not a protected First Amendment right. Lobbying was presumptively against public policy, and lobbying contracts were not enforced. Paid lobbying threatened the integrity of individuals, legislators, lobbyists, and the integrity of society as a whole. Some states had laws criminalizing lobbying; Georgia had an anti-lobbying provision in its Constitution. Inasmuch as there was a personal right to either petition the government, or share views with officers of the government, this right was not something one could sell -- it was not, in the term …
Rationalizing Voter Suppression: How North Carolina Justified The Nation's Strictest Voting Law,
2014
Scripps College
Rationalizing Voter Suppression: How North Carolina Justified The Nation's Strictest Voting Law, Megan C. Raymond
Scripps Senior Theses
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in instances of Republican-dominated state legislatures proposing changes to election law that some see as protecting electoral integrity and others understand as intended to suppress votes of traditionally Democratic constituencies. This thesis is a detailed collection of the rationales used to justify these changes, as examined through a case study of North Carolina’s enactment of the omnibus Voter Information Verification Act of 2013 (VIVA). By also including the arguments proffered during the legislative process by opponents of the law, and after evaluating the merits of the arguments on both sides, I …
Partitioning And Rights: The Supreme Court’S Accidental Jurisprudence Of Democratic Process,
2014
University at Buffalo School of Law
Partitioning And Rights: The Supreme Court’S Accidental Jurisprudence Of Democratic Process, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
In democracies that allocate to a court responsibility for interpreting and enforcing the constitutional ground rules of democratic politics, the sheer importance of the task would seem to oblige such courts to guide their rulings by developing an account of the nature and prominent features of the constitutional commitment to democracy. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has from the beginning refused to develop a general account – a theory – of how the U.S. Constitution establishes and structures democratic politics. The Court’s diffidence left a vacuum at the heart of its constitutional jurisprudence of democratic process, and like most vacuums, …
Politics And The Public’S Right To Know,
2014
Notre Dame Law School
Politics And The Public’S Right To Know, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer
Journal Articles
In the United States it is taken for granted that members of the public should have access to information about their government. This access takes many forms, including the ability to obtain copies of government documents, the ability to attend meetings of government officials, and the related obligations of government officials to document their activities and to reveal certain otherwise private information about themselves. This access also is often limited by countervailing concerns, such as the privacy of individual citizens and national security. Nevertheless, the presumption both at the federal level and in every state is to provide such access. …
Perfect Is The Enemy Of Fair: An Analysis Of Election Day Error In Ohio's 2012 General Election Through A Discussion Of The Materiality Principle, Compliance Standards, And The Democracy Canon,
2014
9th District Ohio Senate
Perfect Is The Enemy Of Fair: An Analysis Of Election Day Error In Ohio's 2012 General Election Through A Discussion Of The Materiality Principle, Compliance Standards, And The Democracy Canon, Eric H. Kearney, Pavan V. Parikh, Bethany E. Sanders
Cleveland State Law Review
The continual change in and review of election systems have not overcome the reality that elections systems, including Ohio’s system, could not weather a close or controversial election without delay, litigation, or doubt as to the result. If such a conflict would arise, the actions taken in polling places across the state could be critical in determining a victor within the state and possibly the nation. Ohio, like many states, has responded to this circumstance with an incredibly technical and rule driven approach to election administration. This approach to elections administration is deficient for two primary reasons: (1) it refuses …
Swing State Rulings On Restrictive Voting Laws Highlight The Need For Comprehensive Electoral Reform,
2014
University of Colorado Law School
Swing State Rulings On Restrictive Voting Laws Highlight The Need For Comprehensive Electoral Reform, Michael Lavigne
University of Colorado Law Review
The right to elect our leaders has been one of the defining features of America's political system from its very beginning. Throughout the two and a half centuries that the United States has existed, that right to vote has gradually been expanded to previously disenfranchised groups, and strengthened through legislation like the Voting Rights Act, Help America Vote Act, and National Voter Registration Act. However, recent elections-such as Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004-have shown that the right to vote can still be undermined by incompetent or conflicted officials. Additionally, measures whose purpose is ostensibly to prevent voter fraud, …
A Recount Of The Recount: Obenshain V. Herring,
2014
University of Richmond
A Recount Of The Recount: Obenshain V. Herring, Maggie Bowman
Law Student Publications
Because of the infrequency of recounts and the lack of judicial institutional knowledge, a plain-English guide is needed to assist judges and attorneys involved in recounts. The purpose of this essay is to provide such a guide as a resource for future Virginia recounts. Part I outlines the process of a recount and discusses how a recount differs from an election contest. Part I also briefly discusses the history of election recounts in Virginia, highlighting the two most recent state-wide recounts, Deeds and Obenshain. Part II delves more deeply into the primary issues encountered by the three-judge panel in Obenshain, …
Hollowed-Out Democracy,
2014
University of Michigan Law School
Hollowed-Out Democracy, Kate Andrias
Articles
Professors Joseph Fishkin’s and Heather Gerken’s essay for this symposium, The Two Trends That Matter for Party Politics, along with the larger project of which it is a part, marks a notable turn (or return) in the law-of-democracy field. Unlike much recent scholarship, Fishkin’s and Gerken’s work does not offer a comprehensive theory of corruption or equality, but instead analyzes the relationship between campaign finance law and the actual functioning of political parties in our democracy. In brief, Fishkin and Gerken tell us that our contemporary political parties are at once highly polarized and oddly weak. They claim this is …
Corruption Temptation,
2014
Duke Law School
Corruption Temptation, Guy-Uriel Charles
Faculty Scholarship
In response to Professor Lawrence Lessig’s Jorde Lecture, I suggest that corruption is not the proper conceptual vehicle for thinking about the problems that Professor Lessig wants us to think about. I argue that Professor Lessig’s real concern is that, for the vast majority of citizens, wealth presents a significant barrier to political participation in the funding of campaigns. Professor Lessig ought to discuss the wealth problem directly. I conclude with three reasons why the corruption temptation ought to be resisted.
Voting Rights Law And Policy In Transition,
2014
Duke Law School
Voting Rights Law And Policy In Transition, Guy-Uriel E. Charles, Luis E. Fuentes-Rohwer
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A New Approach To Judicial Scrutiny Of Voter Registration Laws,
2014
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
A New Approach To Judicial Scrutiny Of Voter Registration Laws, David Feinstein
Cardozo Law Review de•novo
This Note argues that 3PVRO activities implicate First Amendment rights to a degree that merits substantial constitutional protection, and therefore more robust judicial scrutiny of laws regulating them. The applicable constitutional standard requires a court to ask whether the regulated acts constitute political activity within the meaning of the First Amendment. An approach that more accurately reflects the political nature of voter registration will likewise enhance the utility of that standard, and yield more consistent results. This Note further argues that in certain cases restrictions on voter registration activities severely burden core First Amendment rights, and should therefore be subject …
Democratic Capital: A Voting Rights Surge In Washington Could Strengthen The Constitution For Everyone,
2014
American University Washington College of Law
Democratic Capital: A Voting Rights Surge In Washington Could Strengthen The Constitution For Everyone, Jamin B. Raskin
Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals
No abstract provided.
The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra ‘Preclearance’ After Shelby County,
2014
University of California, Davis, School of Law
The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra ‘Preclearance’ After Shelby County, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Douglas M. Spencer
Publications
The Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) effectively enjoined the preclearance regime of the Voting Rights Act. The Court deemed the coverage formula, which determines the jurisdictions subject to preclearance, insufficiently grounded in current conditions. This Article proposes a new, legally defensible approach to coverage based on between-state differences in the proportion of voting age citizens who subscribe to negative stereotypes about racial minorities and who vote accordingly. The new coverage formula could also account for racially polarized voting and minority population size, but, for constitutional reasons, subjective discrimination by voters is the essential criterion. We demonstrate that …
