Election Law

Lawyers Debate Whether New Voter Registration Laws Fight Voter Fraud or Suppress Voter Activity

Forty-three states either have voter identification laws on the books or are considering legislation to enact them. Supporters of those laws say they are trying to fight voter fraud. Opponents say the purpose is to suppress voter turnout. Both sides had their say Sunday in a 90-minute panel discussion on…

Aug 5, 2012 9:45 PM CDT

Citizens United Redux: Supreme Court Summarily Reverses Upstart Montana Opinion

The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed its support for its controversial Citizens United ruling that held corporations have a First Amendment right to expressly support political candidates with independent spending. In a 5-4 opinion, The Supreme Court summarily reversed a Montana Supreme Court ruling that said Citizens United didn’t apply…

Jun 25, 2012 2:10 PM CDT

Want Better Elections or Better Election Case Law? Amend the Constitution, Law Profs Say

Updated: If America wants to do something about elections, the nation should pass a constitutional amendment allowing limits on political contributions. Or it should pass an amendment establishing a U.S. Elections Commission. Or it should pass an amendment guaranteeing a right to vote. Those are the suggestions of three law…

Jun 18, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

DOJ Drops Rest of Case Against John Edwards

Essentially admitting defeat after a federal jury last month acquitted former Sen. John Edwards on one count in a campaign-fraud case and deadlocked on five others, the U.S. Department of Justice has decided not to retry the onetime Democratic presidential candidate. Edwards had been accused of using $1 million in…

Jun 13, 2012 10:08 PM CDT

Summary Reversal Could Be Used in Citizens United Sequel; Is It Appropriate?

The question in a Citizens United sequel is not whether the U.S. Supreme Court will accept the case but how the justices will reverse the Montana Supreme Court. That’s the assessment of a New York Times Sidebar column, which says it’s “pretty much a sure thing” that the Supreme Court…

Jun 12, 2012 1:04 PM CDT

Focus of Next Supreme Court Term Will Be Race, Columnist Predicts

The focus of the next Supreme Court term will likely be race, according to a journalist who used to cover the court. In an Opinionator column for the New York Times, former Times reporter Linda Greenhouse makes her prediction. “Race is the project of the Roberts court—more than enhancing corporate…

Jun 4, 2012 11:30 AM CDT

Edwards Verdict Is Another Big Loss for DOJ’s Public Integrity Section; Will He Be Retried?

The partial acquittal and mistrial on Thursday in the John Edwards trial is the second high-profile loss this year for the Justice Department’s public integrity section. In the earlier loss, an Alabama jury acquitted several defendants in an alleged bribery and corruption scheme involving an effort to legalize gambling, the…

Jun 1, 2012 12:05 PM CDT

The Lawyers of Watergate: How a ‘3rd-Rate Burglary’ Provoked New Standards for Lawyer Ethics

On June 26, 1973, the growing Watergate scandal was already a year old, and John W. Dean III, President Richard M. Nixon’s former White House counsel, was in his second day of testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee when Herman Talmadge, a Democrat from Georgia, directed his attention to exhibit…

Jun 1, 2012 10:20 AM CDT

John Edwards Found Not Guilty on 1 Count in Campaign-Fraud Case; Jury Deadlocks on 5 Others

Updated: After nine days of deliberation in a political corruption case against former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a federal jury in North Carolina found him not guilty on one campaign fraud charge and deadlocked on the other five counts. The onetime Democratic presidential candidate, who had been accused of accepting…

May 31, 2012 8:00 PM CDT

Retired Justice Stevens Sees ‘Crack in the Foundation’ of Citizens United

Corrected: Retired Justice John Paul Stevens said Wednesday that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s “not true” response to President Obama’s comments on the Citizens United decision is among several indications that the court majority has had second thoughts about the breadth of its reasoning. Stevens was a dissenter in the…

May 31, 2012 11:50 AM CDT

News Flash from John Edwards Trial: Color-Coordinated Alternate Jurors Don’t Have to Attend

After a month of trial and more than a week of jury deliberation in the political corruption trial of former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, there’s still no sign of a verdict. But there is one significant new development in the federal case against the former Democratic presidential candidate, reports ABC…

May 30, 2012 10:28 PM CDT

Some Jurors in John Edwards’ Trial—and the Defendant Himself—Sport Red Attire

Was it a red-letter day for John Edwards? John Edwards wore his lucky green tie four days in a row during jury deliberations last week in his trial on campaign finance charges, the Washington Post reports. On Friday, his tie was red. The same day, two jurors and four alternates…

May 29, 2012 1:08 PM CDT

Would Ruling in Citizens United Have Rescued John Edwards from a Criminal Trial?

The campaign finance case against John Edwards will look “somewhat quaint” in the context of the Citizens United decision allowing corporations to support candidates with independent spending, according to a lawyer observing the trial. Raleigh, N.C., lawyer Hampton Dellinger told the New York Times that Edwards supporter Fred Baron, the…

May 24, 2012 1:09 PM CDT

Retired Justice Stevens Hits ‘Misleading’ Parts of Bush v. Gore, Suggests Extension of Rationale

Retired Justice John Paul Stevens took aim at Bush v. Gore on Monday, criticizing parts of the controversial opinion as misleading and its reliance of the equal protection clause as lacking a “coherent rationale.” Stevens spoke Monday evening at a meeting of the American Law Institute, report the New York…

May 23, 2012 1:03 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Suit Saying Ex-Senate Candidate Christine O’Donnell Owes Him $20K Heads to Court

A lawsuit that a lawyer aide filed against former Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell alleging that he wasn’t paid opened today in Delaware’s New Castle County Court of Common Pleas. Jonathan Moseley, a Virginia lawyer, claims O’Donnell owes him more than $20,000, the Associated Press reports. He testified today…

May 21, 2012 7:54 PM CDT