Rick Hasen
@rickhasen
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Professor @UCLA_Law; Director, Safeguarding Democracy Project https://t.co/0QyrTXwnam @rickhasen.bsky.social Election Law Blogger
Studio City, California
Joined June 2009
As a reminder, you can find me on Bluesky (rickhasen -- I'm not posting anything of substance here anymore.
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If you give money to Trump's recount/postelection litigation efforts, half of that money will go towards retiring his campaign debt instead, per the fine print.
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Making a million dollar prize contingent on registering to vote is illegal. See 52 USC 10307(c) Also, with PA registration soon closing for this election it may not accomplish what Musk wants.
New — Elon Musk says on stage at a town hall that America PAC will be awarding $1 million every day until the election to a registered Pennsylvania voter who has signed his petition.
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Public pressure to get private companies to exclude speech meant to bring down American democracy is not censorship. It is patriotism.
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IF YOU LIVE IN PENNSYLVANIA AT THIS POINT YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE U.S. MAIL TO RETURN YOUR BALLOT. (OR AT THIS POINT ANYWHERE IN THE USA. Use a drop box or government office if allowed, or vote in person.).
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The media focus on Biden’s answers on “court packing” are astounding given that the media has hardly explained how far to the right the confirmation of Justice Barrett will move the Supreme Court. It will affect climate change, affirmative action, voting rights, reproductive rts.
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MY ADVICE TO EVERYONE IN PENNSYLVANIA IS TO VOTE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BY MAIL OR TO VOTE IN PERSON ON ELECTION DAY. DO NOT WAIT TO VOTE ANY LONGER THAN YOU HAVE TO.
@rickhasen I hope you're right--but would you risk it with these Justices, whose evident (& extraordinary) view is that the PA Supreme Court violated Article II? I sure wouldn't. Sound the alarms: VOTE IN PERSON (or if health won't allow it, vote by mail carefully, and NOW).
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Just declined to give comment to an OANN reporter who asked me to comment the following:
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I don't think most Americans appreciate how much the Supreme Court is going to reorder law and American society in the next 15 months (that is, by the end of the term next year in June). Guns, abortion, affirmative action is just the start.
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Justice Sotomayor cuts through all the b.s. and posturing in the Texas abortion case.
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Seems to me the Jill Stein story is one of the more undercovered angles of attempted Russian interference in 2016.
And she’s not cooperating with Senate Intelligence. That seems a bit of a red flag.
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OK I will now summarize the remaining serious Trump lawsuits over the election still pending in the federal district courts. This concludes our programming. Please join us again next time.
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If you step back for a moment it is simply astounding to me that so many are working so hard to make it more difficult for people to vote. During a pandemic. Unreal.
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Buried lede: AG Barr has known since at least mid-August he was named in Ukraine call. Did he get a legal opinion on recusal?.
NEWS: AG Bill Barr was “surprised and angry” when he learned Trump lumped him together with Rudy Giuliani in a call with Ukraine’s president suggesting they would investigate Joe & Hunter Biden.
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My new one @Slate: Donald Trump Should Be Prosecuted for His Shakedown of Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger .
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Going to start a list of the ways that Republican lawmakers and election officials have needlessly made it harder to vote during COVID. Feel free to add on here. 1. Ohio SOS Frank LaRose opposing drop boxes while claiming his hands were tied. 2. TX Gov. Abbott reversing on boxes.
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I'm a heck of a lot less nervous about this election at the end of this week than I was at the beginning of it.
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Buried in here: White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is improperly working on the Trump campaign legal efforts. He’s the government’s lawyer, not Trump’s personal lawyer.
An official said Mr. Trump understands that the fight isn’t winnable but characterized his feelings as: “Let me have the fight.” Great reporting from @rebeccaballhaus and @rebeccadobrien.
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With news of Georgia now becoming the second state to postpone its primary, we need to be prepared for November. We cannot postpone the general election. No excuse absentee balloting plans can help insure we can vote in November even if coronavirus dislocations continue.
Here's my @Slate piece making the pitch for congressional legislation mandating no excuse absentee balloting for November's election
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The judge is having to teach Rudy basic constitutional law. That's not hyperbole. This is a description of what is happening at this hearing. I've never seen worse lawyering in an election law case in my life.
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Why are ATT and Comcast allowing Newsmax and OAN to broadcast dangerous seditious bullshit about a stolen election? .What about the corporate responsibility movement? This stuff is going to get people killed.
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If Trump failing to report hush money payments to mistresses as campaign expenses just before the election were a “paperwork error,” he would have filed a correction with the FEC, not denied it for over a year.
“There are thousands and thousands of rules, it’s incredibly complicated - campaign finance,” Rand Paul, on NBC, about Trump/Cohen. “We have to decide whether or not penalities are the way we should approach campaign finance,” saying an error in paperwork “ought to be a fine.”.
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Brian---when are we going to have a national conversation about political reporters failing to report issues of interest to national security/democracy until they can sell it in a book months or years later?.
ANOTHER coup memo:. "In a memo not made public until now, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emailed to Vice President Mike Pence's top aide, on New Year's Eve, a detailed plan for undoing President Joe Biden's election victory"
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When you've lost about 50 lawsuits in a row, a promise that the next lawsuit or appeal will bear fruit is not credible. Full stop.
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The federal court judge just EXCORIATES the Trump campaign for seeking to disenfranchise nearly seven million Pennsylvania voters with SHODDY legal arguments. We told you it would be this way:
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Where, oh where, are all the trolls who told me I wasn't really a professor, that I don't understand constitutional law, that Texas was the case where the Supreme Court was going to hand the election to Trump? Where are you?.
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.@JoyceWhiteVance is absolutely right. Democrats questioning Mueller should avoid theatrics and grandstanding and let staff walk Mueller through report conclusions (on Volume I and II). Should be a moment for seriousness.
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A reminder that the last time the Senate voted on renewal of the Voting Rights Act (in 2006), the bill passed 98-0, including the vote of Senator McConnell. He never called VRA preclearance a power grab then.
Last night, voters across America rejected Democrats and their radical agenda. So what are Senate Democrats doing today? Trying to pass a bill that would give Attorney General Garland sweeping new powers to micromanage election laws and voting procedures across the country.
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My new one @Slate: Jack Smith’s Big New Jan. 6 Brief Is a Major Indictment of the Supreme Court .
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How is a White House employee working on campaign litigation?.
Rudy Giuliani says his son Andrew, a White House employee, took over Trump’s failed Supreme Court litigation while Rudy recovered (with special drugs only Trump-friends can get) from COVID-19.
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“Things have changed in the South.”—-Chief Justice John Roberts in Shelby County v. Holder.
A newly surfaced video shows a GOP senator from Mississippi talking about making it "just a little more difficult" for "liberal folks" to vote. It comes days after Cindy Hyde-Smith faced criticism for another video where she joked about a public hanging.
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The “Obama appointee” who ruled against Trump, Judge Brann, was hand picked by Senator Toomey, is a former Republican Party official and a member of the Federalist Society.
In which the Trump campaign's lawyers say they are "thankful" a federal judge laughed their claims out of court as wholly meritless & unsubstantiated because it will allow them to appeal the case faster
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It has now been 9 days from the election, enough time for the Trump campaign to come forward with credible evidence of irregularities if they have them. Instead Trump is tweeting debunked conspiracy theories about voting machines. Time for Senator McConnell to step up.
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If you are in a position of power and you are wondering if now is the time to show some courage, the answer is unequivocally yes.
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Imagine if the country knew this the day after the election.
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Two things can be true at the same time: Broward county is incompetent in counting votes and there is no evidence of intentional fraud. Rick Scott had 8 years to improve Florida’s system of election administration.
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Confession: It's been really stressful to spend much of the last two years and the entire last week focused on nothing but the potential for the United States to slide into authoritarianism and to lose the ability to hold fair elections.
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"Things have changed in the South." ---.Chief Justice John Roberts, Shelby County v. Holder, 2013.
Ralph Northam’s medical school banned yearbooks in 2013 after students posed in Confederate uniforms
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The DOJ election crimes manual specifically mentions lotteries for voters as prohibited vote buying under that statute. See pages 44-45.
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Just a note that Mitch McConnell could put an end to Trump's nonsense right now.
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FLATTEN THE ABSENTEE BALLOT CURVE.FLATTEN THE ABSENTEE BALLOT CURVE.FLATTEN THE ABSENTEE BALLOT CURVE.FLATTEN THE ABSENTEE BALLOT CURVE.(If voting by mail request your ballot as soon as you are able and return it as soon as you can).
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We are averaging a Trump campaign litigation loss every 20 minutes rn.
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Leonard Leo's "Honest Elections Project" files Supreme Court brief arguing state legislatures are not constrained by even state constitutions protecting voting rights when they regulate federal elections.
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A lot of lawyers should face court sanctions for some of the filings in the courts seeking to overturn the result of the election. And no, not just the lawyers for New California and New Nevada.
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The American people do not realize the freight train coming toward them with a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Here’s my @nymag piece on what that will mean just for voting and elections
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Let’s not be blasé about the President lying to the American people, falsely claiming hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes being cast per state. This is horrible and despicable. He’s proved none of this. Horrifying.
Just watching on Fox News this replay of Trump’s comments lying extensively about fraud in the election. This is false, disgraceful, and dangerous for future of our country. At least he says that “certainly” he will leave office when Congress finds Biden wins Electoral College.
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Anyone who is surprised that even a very conservative judge like Judge Hanen is balking at disenfranchising 100K+ voters at the last minute should not be surprised. The case is absolute garbage, as I explained on Saturday at #ELB:
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Ho. Le. Cow. What a blunder. Kobach can't provide the information he himself requested in the letter. Oh my oh my.
Kobach now says Kansas won't be sharing the last 4 social. Update coming on soon #ksleg.
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1. No abolition of slavery.2. No equal protection clause or due process clause applicable to states.3. No prevention of race discrimination in voting.4. No voting for women.5. No prohibition on poll taxes.6. No voting for 18-20 year olds.7. No direct election of Senators.
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Gotta say it even though it is obvious:. If this were any other President these allegations would be front page news for days, would certainly lead to a congressional investigation, and potential resignation or removal from office.
NY Mag: "E. Jean Carroll says Donald Trump attacked her in the 1990s."
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Every ballot in Georgia for President was counted by hand. Essentially the same results. So logically this eliminates the claim that the voting machines were rigged to miscount the results. It's why we always need a paper trail for voting.
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As others are saying, the bridge should be renamed the John Lewis Bridge. What a hero and role model.
We were beaten, we were tear-gassed. I thought I was going to die on this bridge. But somehow and some way, God almighty helped me here. We cannot give up now. We cannot give in. We must keep the faith, keep our eyes on the prize.
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#ELB: Breaking: In Total Loss for Trump Campaign in Its Most Major Remaining Election Case, Federal Court in Pennsylvania Dismisses Case and Denies Motion to File Amended Complaint [link to opinion]
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#ELB: My Statement: When Order is Restored at the Capitol, Congress Needs to Quickly Count the Electoral College Votes Confirming Biden Victory and Trump Needs to Be Immediately Removed from Office
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Donald J. Trump's no good very bad day in one NYT screenshot:
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You mean the author of Citizens United allowing unlimited corporate spending in candidate elections and one of the 5 votes in the majority in Shelby County killing a key section of the Voting Rights Act? *That* Justice Kennedy?.
Pete Buttigieg says he wants more Supreme Court justices who are like Justice Kennedy. The same Justice Kennedy who voted to uphold Trump's Muslim ban, voted for the Janus decision gutting labor unions, and voted to uphold voter suppression in Husted
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I've been calling on my conservative friends to condemn Leonard Leo, one of the key players in building the Federalist Society and promoting Trump's judges to the federal courts, for backing a group trying to suppress the vote. But now there's evidence of Leo's self-dealing. /1.
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The Trump Era has been the most exhausting period of my life. I am hoping, but not counting on, some calmer days ahead.
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How does TRUMP think he's doing with his election contests? He's now upped to 75% the percentage of donations to his recount committee that will instead go to his post-presidency Leadership PAC/slush fund.
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This development is ominous. It almost certainly means the career attorneys working for the Department of Justice refused to go along with what Trump wants to do now with the citizenship question on the census.
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Last point for now: this is a victory anyone who believes in voting rights should savor. But let's not forget the many lawyers and others who have advanced arguments to literally try to thwart voters' will and steal the election. Shame on them.
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Easter Sunday, 2020. U.S. dead from coronavirus passes 20,000.
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Noted Republican election lawyer ---->.
It is possible that today was the lowest point in the history of the Republican Party. So far. The Judiciary, on the other hand (Trump appointees included) is standing firm for the rule of law.
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But the fact that 18 attorneys general and 126 members of Congress, all Republicans, could line up behind this outrageous Texas case is horrible and bodes ill for the country for years to come.
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Blog post at #ELB: Elon Musk Veers Into Clearly Illegal Vote Buying, Offering $1 Million Per Day Lottery Prize Only to Registered Voters
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Trump in a Nutshell.
Trump on polling: "If it's bad, I say it's fake. If it's good, I say, that's the most accurate poll perhaps ever."
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Alito tries to turn things on their head, by saying to encourage peaceful transitions of power, you need to give incumbents absolute immunity so they will leave and won't worry about prosecution later. This is the most insane thing I've heard today there have been crazy things).
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Look who is posting. This is a cultural shift.
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the judge has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow morning.contempt could be on the table.
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Love everyone tweeting that *now* it's really over-electors have voted, but it's been over for weeks. I can't imagine any other pres candidate, Democrat or Republican, failing to concede in the face of the evidence that the election was run fairly and that the opponent won.
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If I were a judge reviewing some of the cases coming from the Trump legal team, would I consider sanctions for frivolous filings? In some of them, yes.
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After months of hard work, complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a bipartisan, diverse group of scholars and leaders has released a new report on IMMEDIATE steps that need to be taken in law, media, politics, and tech to avoid a November election meltdown. #FairElectionCrisis /1.
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Given where the President is, this strategy may be the one that could save the most lives. Get FOX News to tell the truth.
Rupert Murdoch could save lives by forcing Fox News to tell the truth about coronavirus — right now.
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I'll say it again. If NY were in the deep south, it would face national protests over its shoddy election practices and it would be called voter suppression.
This is how you run a 21st century election. NYC might call itself the city that never sleeps, but Houston is putting it to shame.
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Looking forward to losing many Twitter followers in the weeks ahead as I become increasingly, mercifully, less relevant.
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Am I misreading this, or is Scott Walker complaining that Democrats draw "unfair" maps because they have more supporters than Republicans do and so they can redistrict to capture seats reflecting their popularity?
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Still waiting.
Waiting on a statement from Senator McConnell congratulating Joe Biden on his victory. This is one of the most important steps in affirming the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
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Will Ted Cruz listen?.
So basically McConnell is telling his caucus not to let the crazies in the House to make a circus of the electoral vote counting on January 6.
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Another leading Republican election lawyer shoots down the bonkers Trump voter fraud theory. This is good.
1/4 “This is delusional,” said Mark Braden, ex RNC chief counsel. “I’m a professional Republican so it’s not easy for me to have to deal with. this. Look, voter fraud occurs. I’ve seen it. But you have to be realistic about the size and scope of it.”
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Imagine if there were a law whereby states with a history of racial discrimination in voting had to demonstrate to federal officials that moving a polling place or making voting changes wouldn't make minority voters worse off.
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We all know what this means. There will be no Biden SCOTUS nominee confirmed if Republicans retake the Senate in 2022.
McConnell won't commit to giving a Biden SCOTUS nominee a vote in 2023 if the GOP wins: "I'm not going to start talking about what might happen if I'm the majority leader. I'm just not going to comment about it.".
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Holy shit: After being confronted with photos, Florida SOS "identified himself as the white man in blackface and red lipstick, wearing earrings and a New Orleans Saints bandanna, and falsies under a purple T-shirt that had 'Katrina Victim' written on it.".
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I don’t believe today’s Supreme Court decision would have offered such a shaky and delayed remedy to plaintiffs if they were gun owners facing a California restriction rather than Texas abortion providers.
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If you are surprised at what's going on in Georgia, you haven't been paying attention.
#ELB: “In Georgia, primary day starts with long lines, broken machines — a potential preview of November”
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My new one @Slate: It’s Hard to Overstate the Danger of the Voting Case the Supreme Court Just Agreed to Hear .
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My new oped @nytimes: “At stake is something I never expected to worry about in the United States: the integrity of the vote count. The danger of manipulated election results looms.”
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The Republicans who lined up with Trump in the Texas case are either cowards or worse: those who reject the foundation of a democracy that losers concede after a fair election. We had a fair election, despite what Trump and his supporters say.
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Imagine being the lawyers tasked with coming up with ridiculously unsupported theories and evidence to try to call the election into question. Would have to be pretty shameless and not care about the health of our democracy.
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This is, by a mile, the very best editorial word choice comment I have ever received from law review editors. Full stop.
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You pose this as an either/or proposition.
And there’s the problem with this White House. There’s no way of knowing for sure if it’s incompetence or mendacity.
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WTF Justice Alito? I was uncertain if revelation of first flag merited J Alito's recusal in the first case, but I now believe he must recuse in the Trump immunity and related cases. His impartiality could be reasonably questioned;no blaming it on spouse.
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Lighting ballot boxes on fire in a federal election is a serious crime. It is going to need to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice in federal and state courts.
Burning ballots were pulled from inside a smoking ballot box in Vancouver, Washington, this morning, hours after police responded to an arson at a Portland ballot box.
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If you are asking: "Why should we make it easy for *these* people to vote?", you're doing democracy wrong.
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