Rick Hasen

Very Excited to Announce My New Book Project, “Unbent Arc: The Rise and Decline of American Democracy 1964-2024)” electionlawblog.org?p=152307 I’m very excited to be working on this major project, bringing together my many strands of research on democracy and election law.

#ELB: The Real Reason for DOJ’s Alaska Litigation https://electionlawblog.org/2026/the-real-reason-for-dojs-alaska-litigation/

Tune in!

Not that long ago, three major lower-court rulings against the executive branch on three unrelated topics would’ve been a busy *month,* and outlets would’ve rushed to write up such a run of adverse rulings. Now, it doesn’t feel unusual when we get three on the same *day.* It’s all … exhausting.

Scheduled to be on @cnn.com tonight at 9 pm PT/12 am ET talking about the Ninth Circuit order and other election law-related developments today

Federal Court Speeds Up Considering Mary Peltola and LWV’s Motion to Dismiss the DOJ’s Complaint to Block Certification in Alaska Senate Race electionlawblog.org/2026/federal...

#ELB: “Everything wrong with the DOJ’s uniquely embarrassing lawsuit against Alaska” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/everything-wrong-with-the-dojs-uniquely-embarrassing-lawsuit-against-alaska/

Gee, wonder if the Trump administration will go after Elon Musk for confusing voters by singlehandedly bankrolling Cornel West's presidential aspirations.

Post Edited: “Musk-Linked Dark Money Network Funded the Group Behind Cornel West’s Ballot Push” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/musk-linked-dark-money-network-funded-the-group-behind-cornel-wests-ballot-push/

hahaha

Here's the topline of my analysis on this afternoon's 2-1 Ninth Circuit ruling in the California ballot case:

Jim Ho rn

I didn’t think Judge Bumatay would go for Trump’s argument here, but there we go.

Bumatay - SCOTUS hopeful / shortlister

Breaking: Ninth Circuit on 2-1 Vote Rejects DOJ’s Attempt to Get an Injunction Pending Appeal for California to Segregate Ballots electionlawblog.org/2026/breakin...

The Meritless DOJ Alaska and California Voting Cases Provide No Basis for a Judge to Issue a Search Warrant for Ballots or Voting Machines electionlawblog.org/2026/the-mer...

Post Edited: Trump Promises $1 Million Reward for Voter Fraud Information; Watch Trump Try to Squirm Out of It in Six Months https://electionlawblog.org/2026/trump-promises-1-million-reward-for-voter-fraud-watch-trump-try-to-squirm-out-of-it-in-six-months/

Post Edited: Georgia: “Anthropic model accessed voter information” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/georgia-anthropic-model-accessed-voter-information/

😀

Post Edited: “The Press Shouldn’t Hype Trump’s Bogus Alaska Lawsuit” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/the-press-shouldnt-hype-trumps-bogus-alaska-lawsuit/

Post Edited: “Ohio Supreme Court suspends law license of attorney convicted of voting twice” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/ohio-supreme-court-suspends-law-license-of-attorney-convicted-of-voting-twice/

A single billionaire megadonor is propping up the Republican effort to stop Dems from flipping Pennsylvania’s Senate and gaining full control of government—to a much greater degree than Elon Musk is doing it at the federal level

#ELB: Challenging voter qualifications in California https://electionlawblog.org/2026/challenging-voter-qualifications-in-california/

Coming up in a few minutes on Boston Public Radio. Then at 1 pm ET, I'll be on NPR's @hereandnow.bsky.social

This is a near perfect article whose only defect is the fact that it refers to them as Dan Sullivans rather than the correct Dans Sullivan. www.washingtonsun.com/national/dan...

Post Edited: “How the Trump Administration’s False Election Claims Could Be Used as a Pretext for a Power Grab” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/how-the-trump-administrations-false-election-claims-could-be-used-as-a-pretext-for-a-power-grab/

Trump's attack on free and fair midterm elections that should be familiar to anyone who has lived through the Trump era: The severity of his threat to democracy is matched only by his pure absurdity.

I was listening to this livestream while grocery shopping yesterday and making "oh no" faces in the canned goods aisle as the DOJ lawyer spoke

ICYMI from a rare Sunday oral argument in the California ballot case

Post Edited: “Trump’s Election Attacks Enter New Pre-emptive Phase” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/trumps-election-attacks-enter-new-pre-emptive-phase/

Post Edited: CBS’s “60 Minutes” Profiles Election Denier Tina Peters https://electionlawblog.org/2026/cbss-60-minutes-profiles-election-denier-tina-peters/

#ELB: PODCAST: The 2026 Elections – Where We Stand. A Conversation Between David Becker and Rick Pildes https://electionlawblog.org/2026/podcast-the-2026-elections-where-we-stand-a-conversation-between-david-becker-and-rick-pildes/

Lack of Evidence of Confusion Alone Should Doom DOJ’s Meritless Alaska Complaint over U.S. Senate Certification (DOJ Thinks Alaska Voters are Dumb) electionlawblog.org/2026/lack-of...

Post Edited: Steve Vladeck: “DOJ’s Preemptive Election Interference” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/steve-vladeck-dojs-preemptive-election-interference/

Post Edited: Michael Morley: DOJ’s Alaska Lawsuit “Completely Meritless” https://electionlawblog.org/2026/michael-morley-dojs-alaska-lawsuit-completely-meritless/

Post Edited: Thanks to Tabatha for Blogging Last Week https://electionlawblog.org/2026/thanks-to-tabatha-for-blogging-last-week-2/

“The Department of Justice is putting its formidable thumb on next week’s elections in a way that seems clearly intended to call into question the legitimacy of any result that is especially unfavorable to Republicans—before those results have even come in.” Me on DOJ’s California and Alaska suits:

Ninth Circuit Panel Seems Skeptical of DOJ’s Attempt to Force California to Segregate Ballots from Purported Noncitizens [Updated from Just Completed Oral Argument] electionlawblog.org/2026/ninth-c...

My summary of the just completed oral argument in the 9th Circuit's emergency hearing on the California ballot segregation demand from DOJ:

lol reminder that betting markets are extremely accurate measures of conventional wisdom

the disinformation and propaganda is going to be epic, be prepared

look, nothing is simple and i have no parsimonious explanation for anything here, but a student protest movement, focused on corruption & authoritarianism, just won a major european election. a big deal.

Agreed - 2-1 or 3-0 against the federal government (with possible Bumatay separate writing about how the federal government is raising serious issues on the merits 🤢🙄)

Here are my thoughts on the oral argument: electionlawblog.org/2026/ninth-c...

Ninth Circuit Panel Seems Skeptical of DOJ’s Attempt to Force California to Segregate Ballots from Purported Noncitizens [Updated from Just Completed Oral Argument] electionlawblog.org/2026/ninth-c...