January 13, 2020
In an essay on “Affirming the American Family” for the fall 2019 issue of American Affairs, Maria Molla and I outlined a proposal for a new family benefit program in the United States. Under the name of FamilyPay, our proposal has three aims: (1) to resolve the demographic problems caused by America’s low birth rate;…
January 6, 2020
The Supreme Court has repeatedly opposed the establishment of an affirmative right of protection against private violence through the Due Process Clause. Some circuit courts have carved out an exception where state action exacerbates or creates the victim’s danger. Recently, the Fifth Circuit in Cook v. Hopkins upheld circuit precedent in declining to apply this…
December 29, 2019
The Thompson v. Hebdon per curium opinion is the latest example of the Roberts Supreme Court’s hostility to reasonable money in politics reforms like contribution limits, and its insistence on ignoring empirical data about campaign finance. In Thompson v. Hebdon, the Court remanded the case so that the Ninth Circuit could “revisit whether Alaska’s contribution…
December 26, 2019
The Fourth Amendment has long been understood to be an important source of constitutional protection of an individual’s right to privacy. The rise of digital technologies has, however, eroded the clarity of these protections, which turn on physical words such as “persons, houses, papers, and effects.” Legally, a police investigation only implicates the Fourth Amendment…
December 5, 2019
Where do courts draw the line between lobbyists and politically involved individuals in determining the constitutionality of lobbyist registration laws? Recently, the en banc Eight Circuit addressed this question in Calzone v. Summers by holding that Missouri’s lobbyist registration law violated the First Amendment as applied to an uncompensated lobbyist who incurred no expenditures. As…
Election and Voting Law, General
November 27, 2019
What can states require of candidates for office before they may appear on a state’s ballot? Can they require petitions with thousands of signatures? What about health records? Birth certificates? College transcripts? While some ballot access laws are necessary to ensure organization and efficiency, others have the effect of frustrating democracy. Many times, ballot access…
Genzie Bonadies Torres serves as Counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee’s Educational Opportunities Project. Genzie supports the team’s litigation docket and Parental Readiness and Empowerment Program (PREP) which, together, seek to…
Helen Hershkoff is the Herbert M. and Svetlana Wachtell Professor of Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties (formerly the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law, 2006–2009) and Co-Director of the…
Rebecca Green is Professor of Practice at William & Mary Law School and Co-Director of the Election Law Program, a joint project of the Law School and the National Center…
