Allie Boldt, Legal Research Director Published: August 9, 2024 Link to PDF Introduction In roughly half of U.S. states, state constitutions confer rights of direct democracy, allowing the people to make law directly through statutes …
Multi-state
White Paper: State Judicial Conduct Commissions—The Challenge of Judging Judges
Bryna Godar, Staff Attorney Published: July 10, 2024 Updated: July 30, 2024 Link to PDF Introduction This report analyzes an often-overlooked set of state entities that hold substantial power: judicial conduct commissions.[1] These entities, which …
Miriam Seifter in The New Yorker: Faculty Co-Director Seifter’s Democracy Principle theory is featured in a piece on the promise of state constitutions.
State Court Report: “Scholarship Roundup: End of Semester Edition” by Miriam Seifter
White Paper: Shadow Shadow Dockets
Adam Sopko, Staff Attorney Published: April 12, 2024 Link to PDF Introduction In recent years, legal commentators have analyzed—and often criticized—the U.S. Supreme Court’s “shadow docket.”[1] Rulings on this docket proceed without the usual, public-facing …
Adam Sopko in Bloomberg: Staff Attorney Sopko comments on recent trends in state-court election litigation.
West Academic: “Election Law in a Nutshell” by Dan Tokaji and Rob Yablon
Explainer: Status of Partisan Gerrymandering Claims Across the Country
Harry Isaiah Black, Staff Attorney PDF Available Here Every 10 years, following the federal census, states are required to redraw their congressional and legislative district maps. In the majority of states, the duty to redistrict …
Explainer: Shaping Democracy: 2023’s Statewide Ballot Measures and What Lies Ahead in 2024
Derek Clinger, Senior Staff Attorney PDF Available Here The past year saw a continued trend of increased interest in direct democracy, with the highest number of statewide ballot measures for an odd-numbered election year in …