Some more problems with this CA racial gerrymandering claim: - The suit's main evidence is some commentary by a mapmaker. But it's the LEGISLATURE'S intent that counts here, not what a line-drawer may have thought. electionlawblog.org?p=152920

Nice story about the "billionaires' brief" filed by @electionclinic.bsky.social arguing on behalf of Mark Cuban and others that Maine's limit on Super PAC donations doesn't materially burden their speech and serves critical state interests. www.sportico.com/law/analysis...

HLS's Election Law Clinic filed this amicus brief yesterday on behalf of Mark Cuban and other wealthy Americans, urging the First Circuit to uphold Maine's limit on Super PAC contributions. Not all rich people want to distort elections in their favor! www.hlselectionlaw.org/s/20251029_F...

To clarify, this lawsuit is under the NY Constitution, NOT the NY Voting Rights Act (which only applies to political subdivisions in NY). The suit argues that the NY Constitution should be read to adopt the same vote dilution standard as the NYVRA.

Some more concerns about the SG's proposal in Callais: 1. At present, the first Gingles prong focuses on the availability of remedies. The SG's proposal would make it a probe for racial predominance -- the crux of the distinct theory of racial gerrymandering. electionlawblog.org?p=152738

This is a nice story about our ongoing anti-competitive gerrymandering suit against Wisconsin's congressional map. I like the demonstrative map in the piece -- look how much more competitive WI's districts could be! urbanmilwaukee.com/2025/10/22/d...

Another problem with the SG's proposal in Callais is that it's refuted by Section 2's legislative history. Lots of participants in the '82 hearings thought of the SG's idea that political goals excuse racial vote dilution. And they all believed the idea didn't apply. electionlawblog.org?p=152656

The deputy SG drastically understated the number of districts that would be stripped of legal protection under the administration's proposal in Callais. He said about 15 districts would be affected -- the actual number is close to 70. electionlawblog.org?p=152614

Watch Archived Video of @law.ucla.edu Safeguarding Democracy Project Webinar: “Redistricting and Re-Redistricting Controversies and the 2026 Elections” www.youtube.com/watch?v=x063... @mcpli.bsky.social @profnickstephan.bsky.social Guy Charles and Moon Duchin

I wrote this ELB post on a less radical resolution to Callais that may be appealing to some justices. The idea is just to hold that compliance with Section 2 isn't a compelling interest that can justify what would otherwise be unlawful racial gerrymandering.

Would anyone still sue under Section 2 if the AG's proposal was adopted? You already need an alternative map (matching the challenged plan's partisanship) to win a racial gerrymandering claim. To win a Section 2 claim, you'd have to do that -- plus satisfy the rest of the Gingles prongs and the TOC.

Ironically, VRA plaintiffs would be better off if they had lost in Milligan. Alabama's "race-blind baseline" is legal nonsense. But it's much better for VRA plaintiffs than the SG's proposal -- under which southern states can just erase *all* minority representation.

As I recently wrote, the SG's "moderate" proposal to merely "modify" the Gingles framework would still end Section 2 as we know it. By requiring plaintiffs to match the partisanship of challenged plans, it would block essentially all Section 2 claims in the South. electionlawblog.org?p=152332

The stakes were lower than in today's Callais argument, but I had the opportunity to argue for the New York VRA's constitutionality yesterday before the NY Court of Appeals. Case summary: www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/summa... Plaintiffs' brief: static1.squarespace.com/static/60a55...

I just posted a new paper, "Aligning Constitutional Law," exploring how the alignment principle could be incorporated into constitutional (not just election) law. I'll be giving the Constitution Day Lecture at Drake University today on the same subject. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

@nedfoley.bsky.social has written this insightful article on Bracket Voting as a method of achieving what I call "alignment" between voters' preferences and elections' winners.

I filed this amicus brief in Callais today. The main argument is that Section 2 doesn't require a court-imposed time limit because -- thanks to the Gingles framework -- it's already inherently self-limiting. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...

My article, "Election Law for the New Electorate," is out in the Journal of Legal Analysis. academic.oup.com/jla/article/... Here's the abstract: The American electorate is transforming—undergoing its most sweeping changes in half a century.

My new article, "Redistricting Without Tradeoffs," has found a home in @columlrev.bsky.social. Here's the abstract; I'll be posting the piece soon.

It's striking that members of the CA commission now agree that CA's congressional map should be redrawn if other states enact mid-decade gerrymanders. The goal here should be national partisan fairness. A redrawn CA map can serve that goal by offsetting gerrymanders elsewhere.

We filed this brief defending the constitutionality of the NY Voting Rights Act. I'll be arguing the case in the NY Court of Appeals in October. The issue is pretty important: If the NYVRA somehow violates the Equal Protection Clause, then so do all disparate-impact laws. t.co/3A2Vy4JvB4

My interview with election law expert @profnickstephan.bsky.social on #Texas Republicans' extreme partisan #Gerrymandering. Why the rare move threatens representation and the balance in the US House – and could spark widespread partisan redistricting. 👇

“The mugger asked for a billion dollars, the keys to my house, and my first-born. I got him to agree to $200M (for now). I’m such a savvy negotiator.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/n...

The decision to reargue Callais is confusing. The most plausible rationale for reargument is getting into the Section 2 merits of the preceding lawsuit. But this case simply isn't about Section 2. So it's a terrible vehicle for a blockbuster ruling about the VRA.

My reaction to the HLR leak is that they take article selection extraordinarily seriously. 400+ memos totaling 2000+ pages? And that’s just one stage of their process? Geesh. When I ran YLS’s international law journal, we just met and talked about submissions.

The unpopularity of the Republican megabill highlights the distinctions between different kinds of alignment (the subject of my recent book). In partisan terms, the unified Republican government aligns with voters' preferences. Voters wanted a Republican President and Congress.

This is one of many stories on how Trump could use the government’s power to injure Musk—without ever mentioning the legality of these tactics. They’d all be illegal! As with Trump’s attacks on Harvard, he can’t try to hurt Musk because of his political views. www.axios.com/2025/06/07/t...

This new suit brought by @electionclinic.bsky.social, Law Forward, and Stafford Rosenbaum LLP alleges that Wisconsin's congressional plan is an unconstitutional anti-competitive gerrymander. The plan mirrors its 2011 predecessor, which a federal court found had the aim of protecting incumbents.

While the court (plausibly) held that there was no impending attack on the FEC's independence and bipartisanship, the court agreed with @electionclinic.bsky.social's amicus brief (filed on behalf of @ellenlweintraub.bsky.social ) that these aspects of the agency are vital.

There's a bad take in this Crimson article that the administration's latest attack on Harvard is legal because, unlike the original Trump travel ban, it isn't motivated by religious animus. But religious animus isn't the only way to violate the First Amendment! www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

It doesn’t matter how many more ways the administration comes up with to hurt Harvard. They’re all violations of the First Amendment: attempted punishments of Harvard for its political views, which would be rescinded in an instant if Harvard bent the knee.

If we’re going to start making up exceptions to a made-up theory that forbids independent agencies, the Fed shouldn’t be the only one. E.g., there are excellent reasons why electoral agencies (the FEC and EAC) should be independent — so the President can’t manipulate elections in his favor.

My symposium piece on a new form of PR -- ranked-list proportional representation -- is now up on the Wisconsin Law Review website. RLPR is a hybrid of ranked-choice voting and open-list PR that, I argue, has a number of desirable properties. wlr.law.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...

I think the resolution of the North Carolina case actually puts the genie back in the bottle. If a Trump-appointed conservative judge wouldn't greenlight changing the rules after the election, in some places but not others, who will? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Justice Souter was one of the modern Court's greatest justices on election law issues (behind only Justice Kagan, in my book). In Crawford, he correctly reasoned that heavy voting burdens, even on a small number of people, can't be justified by phantom fears of voter fraud.

What a searing indictment -- by a panel including two Trump-appointed judges! "The 2020 redistricting cycle in Alabama ... did not have to turn out this way. We wish it had not, but we have eyes to see the veritable mountain of evidence that it did." electionlawblog.org/wp-content/u...

This is a big victory for democracy in New York. On-cycle local elections have *much* higher turnout. Even more importantly, on-cycle voters are more demographically and politically representative of the entire eligible electorate. www.syracuse.com/news/2025/05...

This concession comes six months too late and only after a shocking, dogged effort to disenfranchise thousands of North Carolina voters who did everything right when casting their ballots in November. www.wcnc.com/article/news...

This confirms that this was never a serious proposal meant to be implemented. The Trump administration was never going to require passports — which Republicans are less likely to possess — to register to vote.

I'm proud of @electionclinic.bsky.social and all the other lawyers who successfully fought the effort to subvert North Carolina's state supreme court election. They convinced a Trump-appointed district court judge that the state courts' attempt to toss out validly cast ballots was unconstitutional.

Viewpoint diversity is an admirable goal for a university to pursue on its own. In America, though, the First Amendment forbids the government from requiring diversity (or homogeneity, or any distribution) of viewpoints. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/a...

Congrats to Colorado, which is on the verge of passing a state voting rights act. State VRAs have proliferated in recent years. They're an excellent way to protect voting rights more aggressively than the federal VRA (as construed by the federal courts). www.denver7.com/news/politic...

Linking election funds for states to abolishing DEI is unlawful. That’s not a condition that Congress imposed. It’s also unconstitutional, the condition having nothing to do with the money. And the money is so paltry that no state will feel coerced anyway. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The efforts to subvert the results of the NC supreme court election are like an election law issue spotter. Changing the rules after the election? Check. Unequal treatment of voters in different counties? Check. Disenfranchising voters for no good reason? Check. electionlawblog.org?p=149687

This is a disgraceful demolition of one of the DOJ's most cherished offices: the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division. The federal government is now an enemy -- not a guardian -- of the right to vote. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I was pleased to contribute to this NYT feature on the Trump administration’s disregard for the law. If the President doesn’t like the law, he’s free to try to change it. What he’s not allowed to do, in our system, is ignore it. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...

This was always going to be the fate of this EO, which is unlawful six ways to Sunday. The EO would also disparately harm *Republicans* by generally requiring a passport to register to vote. Which is why it's hard to believe the EO was written with the expectation it would ever go into effect.

Are we meant to believe that (illegal) foreign contributions to U.S. political campaigns are limited to ActBlue and don't apply equally to WinRed? Where in the world is the evidence for that?

Congress’s next campaign finance law should close this loophole that allows unlimited donations to presidential inaugurations. The risk of corrupt quid pro quos is obvious. E.g., one donor giving $4M and getting appointed as ambassador to Britain the same day! www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/u...

North Carolina's state supreme court is trying to subvert the recent election for that body in which Justice Riggs was narrowly reelected. This new lawsuit, brought by @electionclinic.bsky.social and other attorneys, aims to stop this shockingly antidemocratic effort. www.hlselectionlaw.org/conley