Election Law Commons^™

Linguistic Colonialism: Law, Independence, And Language Rights In Puerto Rico, Andrea Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

Part I reviews and analyzes courts' attempts to reconcile the conflict between the statutory English-language requirement for federal jurors, Puerto Rico's almost entirely Spanish-speaking population, and the Sixth Amendment's constitutional mandate. This part consists of three sub-parts: a description of Puerto Rico's linguistic landscape in comparison with that of the United States, a history of fair cross section challenges pertaining to the District of Puerto Rico, and a comparative look at fair cross section challenges in the Ninth Circuit. Part II examines the tension between language and constitutional rights through the lens of one case, Diffenderfer v. Gomez-Colon. In this …

Senator Edward Kennedy: A Lion For Voting Rights, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

Senator Edward Kennedy was considered the Lion of the United States Senate. He was also a Lion for civil rights, fighting for justice and equality. Passion, patience and perseverance all describe Senator Kennedy’s approach to legislation. He worked across the political ideological aisle for the furtherance of civil and human rights. His political perspective was never shaded with shadows of personal benefit.

Throughout his career, Senator Kennedy continued to champion civil rights issues, such as, voting, education, housing, and disability rights. During his almost five decades in the United States Senate, he seized many opportunities to highlight and forward the …

Campaign Speech Law With A Twist: When The Government Is The Speaker, Not The Regulator, Helen Norton

Publications

Although government entities frequently engage in issue-related campaign speech on a variety of contested ballot and legislative measures, this fact has been entirely overlooked in contemporary First Amendment debates over campaign speech law specifically and government speech more generally. The Supreme Court's "campaign speech" and "government speech" dockets have focused to date on claims by private parties that the government has restricted or silenced their speech in violation of the First Amendment. In contrast, disputes over what this Article calls "governmental campaign speech" involve Free Speech Clause and other challenges by private parties who seek instead to silence the government's …

The Gerrymandering Orgy Begins, Herman Schwartz

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Two Challenges For Campaign Finance Disclosure After Citizens United And Doe V. Reed, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

Disclosure moved front and center on the campaign finance stage in 2010. Indeed, the year just passed witnessed the emergence of not one, but two significant challenges for our disclosure laws.

2010 began with new concerns about the burdens disclosure can place on the rights of political participation and association protected by the First Amendment, with the possibility that the Supreme Court – which had become increasingly skeptical about campaign finance regulation since Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito joined the Court – might impose new restrictions on disclosure.

What's In A Name?: Predictably Regulating Cyberfraud To Protect The Democratic Political Process, Whitney C. Boshers

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In recent elections, political candidates have capitalized on the Internet as a central organizing resource. As a result of the low-cost, high-reward nature of campaign websites, some candidates have begun to register Web addresses--or domains--in opponents' names in order to disrupt the democratic political process. Engaging in a practice known as cyberfraud, these individuals register for domains containing the candidate's name, such as 'firstnamelastname.com." Then, instead of finding themselves on the candidate's official campaign website, voters access a website operated by the candidate's opponent that contains misleading or outright false information. Unfortunately, most political candidates have little recourse for such …

I Demand Proof That Trump’S Hair Is His Own — And American, Brandt Goldstein

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Election Campaigns And Democracy: A Review Of James A. Gardner, What Are Campaigns For? The Role Of Persuasion In Electoral Law And Politics, Richard Briffault

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A 30-Per-Cent Deviation Is Too Wide, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Following Prime Minister Lee's recent announcement that the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) had been convened, SMU Assistant Professor Eugene Tan opined that the 30-per-cent deviation rule, of which the EBRC operates on, is too wide and ?overly-generous? in small and compact Singapore. Professor Tan also commented that the committee's redrawing of electoral boundaries should avoid being seen as gerrymandering.

Identifying And Enforcing Back-End Electoral Rights In International Human Rights Law, Katherine A. Wagner

Michigan Journal of International Law

From Kenya to Afghanistan, Ukraine, the United States, Mexico, and Iran, no region or form of government has been immune from the unsettling effects of a contested election. The story is familiar, and, these days, hardly surprising: a state holds elections, losing candidates and their supporters claim fraud, people take to the streets, diplomats and heads of state equivocate, and everyone waits for the observers' reports. It is the last chapter of this story-the resolution-that remains unfamiliar and still holds the potential to surprise. The increasing focus on and importance of the resolution of contested elections, that resolution's link to …

The Incompatability Of Competitive Majority-Minority Districts And Thornburg V. Gingles, Amy Rublin

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Disproportionate Disenfranchisement Of Aboriginal Prisoners: A Conflict Of Law That Australia Should Address, Megan A. Winder

Washington International Law Journal

In 2006, Australia’s Parliament banned all prisoners from voting. A year later, Vickie Lee Roach, a female prisoner of Aboriginal descent, challenged the blanket ban promulgated in the 2006 amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act of 1918 (“Electoral Act”). Vickie won, but in a limited way. The High Court found an implied right to vote in the Australian Constitution, but held that Parliament could limit such voting, as it did in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment of 2004 (“E & R Amendment”), disenfranchising any prisoner serving three or more years in jail. This Comment argues that the E & R …

Consumer Assent To Standard Form Contracts And The Voting Analogy, Wayne Barnes

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Variation In Third Party Politics Across The American States, Trevor Grunwald

Political Science Theses and Capstones

It seems that third party candidates and third parties themselves are usually just a flash in the pan, who once in a while seem to get their fifteen minutes of fame. Ross Perot a native Texan created lots of havoc on the 92 and 96 presidential elections. Also in the great state of Minnesota in 1998 Jesse Ventura became Governor while being a third party candidate. One can’t help but wonder who the next big third party candidate will be, and from which state they will come. Will this person come from a conservative state a liberal state, or will …

Fair Measure Of The Right To Vote: A Comparative Perspective On Voting Rights Enforcement In A Maturing Democracy, Janai S. Nelson

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article examines the underenforcement of the right to vote in Ghana, focusing on the exclusion of incarcerated citizens (GICs) despite the 1992 Constitution granting universal adult suffrage. It argues that underenforcement stems from legislative, administrative, and judicial failures, undermining democratic principles. The Ghanaian Supreme Court's decision in OcanseyCHURCIL ruled that denying GICs the right to vote was unconstitutional, aligning with a broader interpretation of voting rights as fundamental. The article emphasizes the importance of explicit constitutional provisions and active enforcement by all government branches to sustain democracy, particularly in emerging democracies.

The Election Period And Regulation Of The Democratic Process, Saul Zipkin

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Vote From Beyond The Grave, Krysta R. Edwards

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Note, Making Ballot Initiatives Work: Some Assembly Required, Portia Pedro

Faculty Scholarship

For over one hundred years, the ballot initiative or proposition has been touted as a solution to some of the problems in the representative system of democracy in the United States. Depending on a state’s ballot initiative system, this mechanism enables citizens to make laws, to create or eliminate rights, or to amend the state’s constitution through a popular vote. Popular initiatives were initially intended to allow ordinary citizens to intervene in the democratic process when their representative officials were not carrying out their wishes. These proposition processes were supposed to create a space for public deliberation. By allowing the …

The Pursuit Of Perfection: Congressional Power To Enforce The Reconstruction Amendments, A. Christopher Bryant

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In June 2009 the Supreme Court avoided a decision on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act's preclearance requirement, while at the same time managing to foreshadow that provision's ultimate demise. In a separate opinion, Justice Thomas announced that he would have reached the issue and invalidated the preclearance requirement. Conceding that unconstitutional racial discrimination in the administration of elections continued to be an unfortunate reality, he asserted that Congress was not permitted to pursue "perfect compliance" with the Constitution's mandate via the use of "broad prophylactic legislation."

Justice Thomas's statement accurately, though to be sure rather starkly, expressed an …

Citizens Disunited, Steven L. Winter

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.