Election Law Commons^™

To Protect The Right To Vote, Look To State Courts And State Constitutions, Joshua A. Douglas

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Issue Brief details the scope of voting rights under state constitutions, an overlooked source of the right to vote. Part I considers both the lack of a federal constitutional right to vote and the explicit right mentioned in virtually all state constitutions. Part II describes recent state-level voter ID cases, providing a summary of how courts facing litigation over voter ID laws have employed their state constitutions. Part III contends that state courts, instead of simply following narrow federal jurisprudence in “lockstep,” should give broader, independent force to their explicit state constitutional provisions conferring the right to vote. Part …

Death By A Thousand Cuts: How The Supreme Court Has Effectively Killed Campaign Finance Regulation By Its Limited Recognition Of Compelling State Interests, Kevin R. Huguelet

University of Miami Law Review

This Article examines the current campaign finance jurisprudence in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the Court’s recognition of compelling state interests. Given the limited recognition of compelling state interests, this Article seeks to question the seemingly arbitrary rationale behind recognition and explore the implications of minimal acceptance of compelling state interests. Because the evolution of compelling state interest recognition has varied greatly, the Court’s recent insistence — that the state has merely one compelling interest — is troublesome. This Article provides a comprehensive review of the campaign finance jurisprudence, then reviews the decisions that created or argued …

The Voting Rights Act, Questions Of Deference & Legislative Facts In A Digital Age, Allison Orr Larsen

Faculty Publications

AALS Constitutional Law Panel (January 5, 2015)

Do Laws Have A Constitutional Shelf Life?, Allison Orr Larsen

Faculty Publications

Times change. A statute passed today may seem obsolete tomorrow. Does the Constitution dictate when a law effectively expires? In Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 decision that invalidated a provision of the Voting Rights Act, the Court seems to answer that question in the affirmative. Although rational and constitutional when written, the Court held that the coverage formula of the law grew to be irrational over time and was unconstitutional now because it bears “no logical relation to the present day.” This reason for invalidating a law is puzzling. The question answered in Shelby County was not about whether …

Section 3: Election Law, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

Lucky To Be Singaporean, Ee-Ing Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Op-ed about being Singaporean, in our historic 2015 elections.

"In the midst of our historic elections, I would like to remind Singaporeans that there remains a wider world out there. That our concerns about CPF money, high housing prices, rising income inequality, foreign workers, transportation woes, and the AHPETC saga, while important, are nonetheless First World problems. We have the luxury of arguing about them because we don’t have to worry about the fundamental problems of survival. Literally.

Thus, as we consider what we would like our country to look like in the coming years, I suggest that we first …

Why Ahpetc Is A National Issue In 2015, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

With tomorrow being the last day of the hustings, the battle for the hearts and minds of 2.46 million Singaporean voters takes on greater urgency and poignancy. Any misstep by the nine political parties and their candidates at this late stage might well be game changing.

Brief Of Amici Curiae Professors Joshua A. Douglas And Michael E. Solimine, Election Law Scholars, In Support Of Petitioners, Joshua A. Douglas, Michael E. Solimine

Law Faculty Advocacy

Professor Joshua A. Douglas and Professor Michael E. Solimine are election law experts who have a particular interest in the procedural aspects of election litigation. Professors Douglas and Solimine are filing this brief because they have a keen interest in ensuring that the federal courts employ the proper procedure in election law cases, as doing so helps to resolve these disputes in a manner that best comports with the unique aspects of the electoral system. This brief explains why district courts should not use the pleading standard from Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007) and Ashcroft …

Who Should Be Afforded More Protection In Voting – The People Or The States? The States, According To The Supreme Court In Shelby County V. Holder, Tara M. Darling

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

In The Wake Of White: How States Are Responding To Republican Party Of Minnesota V. White And How Judicial Elections Are Changing, Rachel Paine Caufield

Akron Law Review

The selection of state court judges in the United States has been the subject of vigorous debate. The controversy continues to build as some scholars contend that only the appointment of judges ensures the independence of the judiciary by insulating the judge from retaliation for unpopular decisions. Yet volumes of evidence unfold each day to reveal a judiciary under attack for making legal albeit unpopular decisions. While the cloak of a lifetime appointment with no effective method of removal does little to instill confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary, an election riddled with partisan rhetoric or one-sided attacks is …

Public Financing For Non-Partisan Judicial Campaigns: Protecting Judicial Independence While Ensuring Judicial Impartiality, Phyllis Williams Kotey

Akron Law Review

The selection of state court judges in the United States has been the subject of vigorous debate. The controversy continues to build as some scholars contend that only the appointment of judges ensures the independence of the judiciary by insulating the judge from retaliation for unpopular decisions. Yet volumes of evidence unfold each day to reveal a judiciary under attack for making legal albeit unpopular decisions. While the cloak of a lifetime appointment with no effective method of removal does little to instill confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary, an election riddled with partisan rhetoric or one-sided attacks is …

Financing Ohio Supreme Court Elections 1992-2002: Campaign Finance And Judicial Selection, Nancy Marion, Rick Farmer, Todd Moore

Akron Law Review

The 2000 Ohio Supreme Court election renewed interest in judicial selection reform. The election was noted for interest group issue advocacy and undisclosed campaign spending. Advocacy groups spent millions attempting to unseat incumbent Justice Alice Robie Resnick, leaving the impression that Ohio justice is controlled by special interests and trial lawyers. The uses of negative campaigning and issue advocacy seemed to confirm suspicions that the Ohio Supreme Court had become dependent on campaign contributions from those with cases before the court. After the election, legal academics and public interest organizations began discussing changes to Ohio’s semi-partisan system. Legal scholarship focused …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.