Election Law Commons^™

Coordination Reconsidered, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

At the heart of American campaign finance law is the distinction drawn by the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo between contributions and expenditures. According to the Court, contributions may be limited because they pose the dangers of corruption and the appearance of corruption, but expenditures pose no such dangers and therefore may not be limited. The distinction between the two types of campaign spending turns not on the form – the fact that contributions proceed from a donor to a candidate, while expenditures involve direct efforts to influence the voters – but on whether the campaign practice implicates the …

Monitored Disclosure: A Way To Avoid Legislative Supremacy In Redistricting Litigation, Mark Tyson

Washington Law Review

The Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution protects members of Congress from testifying about “legislative acts” or having “legislative acts” used against them as evidence. U.S. Supreme Court decisions delineating the scope of what constitutes a “legislative act” have an episodic feel and have failed to create a readily applicable test for new factual scenarios. One such scenario occurs when members of Congress communicate with state legislators regarding congressional redistricting. Courts must know how to handle instances where members of Congress assert legislative privilege in the redistricting context, and specifically when members of Congress assert the privilege in …

Why The National Popular Vote Compact Is Unconstitutional, Norman R. Williams

BYU Law Review

Unable to secure passage of a federal constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College, several opponents of the Electoral College have sought to establish the direct, popular election of the President via an interstate compact according to which individual signatory states agree to appoint their presidential electors in accordance with the nationwide popular vote. Ostensibly designed to prevent elections, such as the one in 2000, in which the Electoral College “misfired” and chose the candidate who received fewer popular votes, the National Popular Vote Compact has been adopted by several states, including California. In this Article, I argue that the National …

False Statements V. Free Debate: Is The First Amendment A License To Lie In Elections?, Simon A. Rodell

Florida Law Review

No abstract provided.

Land Use By, For, And Of The People: Problems With The Application Of Initiatives And Referenda To The Zoning Process, Nicolas M. Kublicki

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Resolving Election Error: The Dynamic Assessment Of Materiality, Justin Levitt

William & Mary Law Review

The ghosts of the 2000 presidential election will return in 2012. Photo-finish and error-laden elections recur in each cycle. When the margin of error exceeds the margin of victory, officials and courts must decide which, if any, errors to discount or excuse, knowing that the answer will likely determine the election’s winner. Yet despite widespread agreement on the likelihood of another national meltdown, neither courts nor scholars have developed consistent principles for resolving the errors that cause the chaos.

This Article advances such a principle, reflecting the underlying values of the electoral process. It argues that the resolution of an …

The Death Of The Voting Rights Act Or An Exercise In Geometry?--Shaw V. Reno Provides More Questions Than Answers, Michael J. Moffatt

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Could The Best Of Tightrope Walkers Manage To Walk The Line Between Race-Consciousness And Race-Predominance? An Analysis Of Race-Based Districting In Light Of Miller V. Johnson, Sean Simpson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Election Law, Christopher R. Nolen, Jeff Palmore

University of Richmond Law Review

Other than a few controversial measures, the 2012 Virginia General Assembly made modest changes to Virginia's laws re-garding the administration and conduct of elections. Most activity in this arena concerned issues that had significant federal election implications: specifically, the adoption of changes to strengthen Virginia's existing voter identification law and the enactment of a congressional redistricting plan. This article surveys developments in Virginia election law for the latter part of 2011and the 2012 General Assembly session. The focus is on those statutory developments that have significance or general applicability to the implementation of Virginia's election laws. Consequently, not every election-related …

Lifting The Fog: Ending Felony Disenfranchisement In Virginia, Dori Elizabeth Martin

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Can't A Chicken Vote For Colonel Sanders? U.S. Term Limits, Inc. V. Thornton And The Constitutionality Of Term Limits, Julie Heintz

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Televised Political Debates And Arkansas Educational Television Commission V. Forbes: Excluding The Public From Public Broadcasting, Joshua Dale

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Election Law Behind A Veil Of Ignorance, Chad Flanders

Florida Law Review

Election law struggles with the question of neutrality, not only with its possibility—can election rules truly be neutral between parties?—but also with its definition. What does it mean for election laws to be “neutral”? This Article examines one form of election law neutrality, found in what it terms “veil of ignorance rules.” Such rules are formed in circumstances where neither party knows which rule will benefit its candidates in future elections.

This Article considers the existence of veil of ignorance rules in two recent election law controversies: the rule that write-in ballots must be spelled correctly (in the Lisa Murkowski …

Beyond The Red, Purple, And Blue: Election Law Issues In 2012, Keesha M. Gaskins, Stephen F. Huefner, Joshua N. Lief, Michael J. Pitts, Jocelyn F. Benson, Joshua A. Douglas, Rebecca Green, Dale Ho, Michael P. Mcdonald, Donald Palmer, Rob Richie

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

The Symposium Welcome was given by Clint A. Nichols, the Allen Chair Editor for the University of Richmond Law Review, and Wendy C. Perdue, Dean & Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law.

The “Get out the vote?” session was presented by Keesha M. Gaskins, Senior Counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University; Steven F. Huefner, Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Programs at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law; Joshua N. Lief, Senior Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia; and Michael J. Pitts, Professor of Law …

Post-Citizens United: Using Shareholder Derivative Claims Of Corporate Waste To Challenge Corporate Independent Political Expenditures, William Alan Nelson Ii, Esq.

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Administration Of A Republican Form Of Government (Enforcement), Edward B. Foley, Richard L. Hasen, Edwin Bender, Laughlin Mcdonald, Andrew King-Ries

Browning Symposia & Lectures

Panel on enforcement.

Symposium Introduction & The Rules Of A Republican Form Of Government (Campaign Regulation), William P. Marshall, Richard Pildes, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Anthony Johnstone

Browning Symposia & Lectures

Symposium Introduction by Anthony Johnstone.

Panel on campaign regulation.

Keynote Address: On What Being A (Small R) Republican Means, Lawrence Lessig

Browning Symposia & Lectures

Keynote Address by Professor Lawrence Lessig to the Montana Law Review’s Honorable James R. Browning Symposium on Election Law, The State of the Republican Form of Government in the States: Debating Democracy’s Future, held at The University of Montana School of Law on September 27, 2012.

Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and founder of Rootstrikers, a network of activists leading the fight against government corruption. He has authored numerous books, including Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Our …

The Intellectual Integrity Of Ed Baker, Vincent Blasi

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Horse Of A Different Color: Distinguishing The Judiciary From The Political Branches In Campaign Financing, Anthony J. Delligatti

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.