Election Law

1270 ABA Journal Election Law articles.

Chemerinsky: SCOTUS rulings on election districting likely to affect who’s going to Congress in 2025

Two recent rulings of the Supreme Court—one on its “shadow docket” and the other a decision on the merits—again revealed the deep division among the justices with regard to issues concerning voting and the electoral process. Each was decided by a 6-3 margin, with the familiar ideological split among the current justices, and each will have significant consequences for our political system in making it harder to bring challenges to the drawing of election districts.

May 30, 2024 9:54 AM CDT

Justice Alito tells Congress he will not recuse from Jan. 6-related cases

Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. announced Wednesday that he will not recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases at the Supreme Court after Democratic lawmakers questioned whether he could be impartial following reports that an upside-down flag flew at his home in the weeks after the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

May 29, 2024 2:30 PM CDT

Judge rejects request to restrict Trump’s speech on FBI, says motion was faulty

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Tuesday denied a request from federal prosecutors that she order Donald Trump to stop making incendiary claims about law enforcement personnel, saying the government should have more thoroughly consulted with Trump’s attorneys before coming to her.

May 29, 2024 9:59 AM CDT

The Trump hush-money trial’s greatest misses

Over 20 days at Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, the prosecutors, defense lawyers, and even the judge have had strong moments, but also times when they’ve faltered or been caught off guard, according to legal experts who have been tracking the case.

May 28, 2024 1:45 PM CDT

Wife of Justice Alito called upside-down flag ‘signal of distress’

The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a Washington Post reporter in January 2021 that an upside-down American flag recently flown on their flagpole was “an international signal of distress” and indicated that it had been raised in response to a neighborhood dispute.

May 28, 2024 11:30 AM CDT

Supreme Court allows disputed South Carolina voting map

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the use of a South Carolina congressional map that a lower court said “exiled” thousands of Black voters to carve out a district safer for a White Republican incumbent.

May 23, 2024 9:44 AM CDT

Alito’s beach house displayed ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag, a ‘provocative symbol,’ report says

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s beach house in New Jersey displayed an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, another “provocative symbol,” the New York Times reports.

May 23, 2024 9:28 AM CDT

‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ among winners of 2024 ABA Silver Gavel Awards

Killers of the Flower Moon, a film by Martin Scorsese, is among the winners of the 2024 ABA Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts.

May 22, 2024 12:40 PM CDT

Judge in Trump hush-money trial received letter of caution for making $35 in political contributions

The judge presiding in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money election-interference trial received a written letter of caution last year because of $35 in Democratic political donations that he made in 2020.

May 20, 2024 2:18 PM CDT

Upside-down flag flew at Justice Alito’s house after neighbor dispute

In the fraught weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. flew an upside-down American flag at their home following a dispute with a neighbor over anti-Trump yard signs, according to a statement from the justice and interviews with neighbors.

May 20, 2024 1:45 PM CDT