Links of Interest: August 20-24, 2012

Judicial Performance and Elections The Election Law Blog has copies of the amicus brief filed in support of cert filed jointly by six states and a separate brief filed by Alaska in the Voting Rights Act case. Petitioners Shelby County and John Nix filed the initial petition in July seeking Suprem...
August 24, 2012

Donor Diversity through Public Matching Funds

In May, the Brennan Center for Justice and the Campaign Finance Institute released a report on how public financing improves diversity of small donors and changes how candidates view potential donors and potential constituents. The report’s authors note that the data set is rather small, but the tre...
August 23, 2012

Policy Brief: Early Case Assessment in Urban Jurisdictions

The twin goals of early case assessment are to devote more resources to those cases for which a conviction can confidently be obtained, and also to decline to prosecute, reduce charges, or divert other cases. Our Early Case Assessment Policy Brief takes a look at how the District Attorney's Offices...
August 21, 2012

Links of Interest: August 5-10, 2012

Judicial Performance and Elections Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking at the ABA Annual Meeting this week, said that judicial qualifications should count more than politics. Information and statistics on federal judicial vacancies is available from the American Constitution Society and the Brookin...
August 10, 2012

Summer 2012 Updates on Money and Elections

United States v. Danielcyzk At the end of June, the Fourth Circuit Court decided on United States v. Danielcyzk (.pdf), a case that is important with regards to campaign finance disclosure. The Circuit court decision upholds the current federal ban on corporate contributions that is located in the...
August 7, 2012