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"The proof of age law doesn't exist to 'protect' beer, said Derek Clinger, senior staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin law school. It is meant to prevent underage drinking, which poses health risks."

"'They made a case that doing this would comply with the U.S. Supreme Court precedent and that states have this power to regulate and kind of control what sorts of activities corporations are allowed to participate in,' Clinger said. 'It’s an interesting idea what they’re doing in Montana, but I think it would absolutely be litigated, and it’s kind of hard to predict what would happen.'"

"'The nightmare scenario used to be that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act and have the military seize ballots and machines from a swing state on election night,' said Derek Clinger, senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. 'But Fulton County suggests a much more plausible scenario: one where the seizure of ballots is conducted with the appearance of a legal process. I think that approach is both more likely to happen and also harder to challenge in real time.'”

"Advocates fear Florida’s approach could become a blueprint for other states to follow. “It definitely seems to fulfill what people warned would happen,” said Derek Clinger, senior counsel with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “We’ve just seen this whole package of reforms going through that make every aspect of the process more difficult,” he added."

"Legal experts, however, suggested the administration faces formidable odds. Derek Clinger, a senior staff attorney at the University of Wisconsin Law School's State Democracy Research Initiative, observed that 'the court is very clear that the Constitution gives no authority to the president to do any of these things, and that federal law doesn't either.'"

“'It’s a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to expand federal control over our country’s historically state-run election infrastructure,' said Derek Clinger, a senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative, an institute at the University of Wisconsin Law School."

"Election law experts are questioning the legality of the FBI’s unprecedented seizure of 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Ga. in a raid that has further inflamed fears of federal interference in the upcoming midterm elections. "

Election administrators in the U.S. face persistent financial strain with local governments and their tax bases shouldering most costs while state and federal support remains limited. At the same time, states collect billions each year in unclaimed funds, which are assets like abandoned bank accounts and forgotten insurance proceeds. States are increasingly using unclaimed funds to support public programs like education and housing, but none have earmarked them for election administration.

"Derek Clinger, senior staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, pointed to Carter’s comprehensive discussion of the 1960 Civil Rights Act (CRA), and the DOJ rarely-invoked demands under it for access to voter registration records. “That’ll be the most read part by the other courts,” Clinger said, noting that the agency failed to provide a written basis for the record demands — a reason for believing the states were acting unlawfully — as required by the CRA."

"Number 19 in our series of occasional roundups on election law and policy." (References SDRI Research).