Does the Senate Have the Constitutional Authority to Refuse to Seat a Blagojevich Appointee?
4 Comments Published by James December 18th, 2008 in Congress, Constitutional Law, Current Events, Election Law, History, Politics, Presidential ElectionOn Monday, in response to a complaint from the United States Department of Justice alleging that Governor Milorad “Rod” Blagojevich had solicited bribes and engaged in a massive conspiracy to commit fraud, the Illinois House voted 113-0 to begin impeachment proceedings. Blagojevich has not yet been indicted. On December 10th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [...]
Fishing for a Story: How the Media Is Reading Too Much Into Referrals of Obama Citizenship Cases by Conservative Supreme Court Justices
5 Comments Published by James December 9th, 2008 in Antonin Scalia, Barack Obama, Blogosphere, Blogs, Clarence Thomas, Court Procedure, Current Events, David Souter, Election Law, Media, Presidential Election, Ruth Bader GinsburgOver the course of the past week, both the blogosphere and mainstream media have been spending quite a bit of time over at the Supreme Court rumor mill. There has been a lot of buzz about two cases concerned with president-elect Obama’s citizenship, Donofrio v. Wells (08A407) and Wrotnowski v. Bysiewicz (08A469). The applications for [...]
Today Is “Safe Harbor” Day 2008
1 Comment Published by James December 9th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Election Law, Presidential ElectionAgain, our thanks to commenter Ted for bringing the Scalia referral to our attention. In speaking about that application for stay, Ted writes: I don’t think Team Obama should get too comfortable with the Court’s denial of [Donofrio] since [Wrotnowski] IS distributed for Dec 12 conference. It’s important to remember that the “safe harbor” deadline–the [...]
Supreme Court Rejects Question of Obama’s Citizenship
4 Comments Published by Kedar December 8th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Court Procedure, Election Law, Supreme CourtOnce again, the Court rejected a case challenging President Obama’s citizenship. The case was Donofrio v. Wells (08A407). You can find the Order List here and the docket page here. The case had been rejected by Justice Souter, the Justice who presides over that circuit, before it was refiled with Justice Thomas, who opted to [...]
Court Appears to Deny Stay in Donofrio v. Wells
1 Comment Published by James December 6th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, David Souter, Election Law, Politics, Presidential ElectionThe Supreme Court appears to have declined review in a case filed against the Secretary of State of New Jersey that sought to nullify Barack Obama’s election to the presidency. The case, which centers on Obama’s citizenship, was not among those for which the Court accepted review on Friday; thus, watchers of the high Court [...]
Is Early Voting Constitutional?
7 Comments Published by James August 12th, 2008 in Constitutional Law, Election Law, John Edwards, Politics, Presidential Election, TexasAll of this John Edwards business has got me thinking about early voting. I am registered to vote in Texas, where Election Codes 81.001 and 82.005 specify that I can ”vote early” – up to seventeen days before any federal election. Say, hypothetically, that John Edwards had rallied for a victory in South Carolina and [...]
WSJ Op-ed on Judicial Elections
0 Comments Published by Kedar March 22nd, 2008 in Election Law, State CourtsThe Wall Street Journal has an interesting op-ed this weekend on state judicial elections. Lloyd Karmeier, the winner of a $9.3 million campaign for the Illinois Supreme Court in 2004, was supported by $350,000 in direct contributions from employees, lawyers and others directly involved with the insurer State Farm and/or its then pending appeal, and [...]
Florida Smackdown
1 Comment Published by Yao Yao August 26th, 2007 in Current Events, Democrats, Election Law, Hillary Clinton, Presidential ElectionThe Democratic National Committee voted to take away Florida’s electoral power at the national convention if Florida kept its January 29th primary date. Synopsis: Florida, in an attempt to make the candidates actually care about the state (“put me in, coach!”), moved up their primary date from February to January, hoping to steal the thunder [...]
Looking Ahead to New York State Board of Elections v. LĂłpez Torres
8 Comments Published by James August 4th, 2007 in Circuit Courts, Election Law, Supreme Court, Upcoming ArgumentsOn October 3rd of this year, the Supreme Court will entertain arguments is New York State Board of Elections v. LĂłpez Torres, which centers on the method by which the state of New York selects its trial judges. Margarita LĂłpez Torres, an aspiring candidate, argued in the US District Court for the Eastern District of [...]
Candidate Profile: Mitt Romney
3 Comments Published by James July 6th, 2007 in Foreign Policy, Immigration, Presidential ElectionToday I have the distinct pleasure of publishing the third installment of the DailyWrit Candidate Profiles, which will examine former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Romney, 60, attended Stanford before leaving for France on a mission trip customary in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon his return, he transferred to BYU and eventually [...]



