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Recent political earthquakes such as the assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump and President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 campaign quickly overshadowed the various court proceedings involving the [...]

The article analyzes the organizational and legal prerequisites and the process of reorganization of the administrative and territorial system and the formation of local self-government on the territory of Subcarpathian Rus (Transcarpathia) during the first half of the 20s of the 20th century. It was established that the system of administrative and territorial organization of the region was formed gradually, undergoing minor changes at the initial stage. At this stage, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in the former Hungarian lands (Piedkarpattia) not only adopted the existing Hungarian administrative system to a certain extent, but also partially adapted it to its needs. It has been analyzed that instead of Czechoslovak committees under Law No. 126/1920, the old Hungarian committee administration, modified by Law No. 210/1920 and Government Decree No. 476/1920, remained in force in Subcarpathian Rus. It was established that after the recognition of the invalidity of the Committee Law No. 126/1920 and the unsuccessful attempt to introduce Government Decree No. 352/1920 in Subcarpathian Rus, the government of the Czech Republic began to be interested in the centralization of power in the region. It is noted that the resolution of the Presidium of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Czechoslovakia No. 22093 dated August 26, 1921 approved a new administrative-territorial system with a division into three counties and 19 districts. The cities of Uzhhorod and Mukachevo were declared settlements with a regulated magistrate. It is proven that the limitation of local self-government was based on government decree No. 171/1923, the principle norm of which was the appointment of new district notaries, who became civil servants supervising self-government. Corresponding conclusions were made regarding the support by the state authorities of the Czechoslovak Republic of the principle of vertical subordination of self-government bodies, especially city ones, which even illusory did not correspond to the principles of the autonomous organization of the region stipulated by the Saint-Germain Peace Treaty [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Purcell Principle--the doctrine that courts should refrain from changing election rules during the period of time close to an election--has long been misconstrued. Where the Principle operates, it creates a near-categorical bar to federal judicial relief in the upcoming election cycle; the provisions of federal law that would normally safeguard voting rights, govern redistricting, and supervise how a state can conduct its elections are paralyzed until after election day. Born and raised on the shadow docket, the Principle has been underdeveloped by the Supreme Court. The Court has provided little guidance as to what triggers the Principle or how it will be applied in future cases. And, in recent years, the doctrine has become increasingly powerful in shaping election law. With the 2024 elections quickly approaching, this Note seeks to shed light on Purcell. The goals of this Note are twofold. First, I suggest that courts and scholars have been thinking about Purcell incorrectly. I argue that Purcell cannot be justified on the grounds of preventing voter confusion--as the case law and scholarship have suggested--but instead is better explained by federalism. Under this conception, the Court's historic applications of the doctrine make more sense. Second, I provide a new framework for understanding what triggers Purcell. In deciding whether the Purcell Principle should be applied, courts would reach more consistent, analytically sound results by asking whether judicial intervention would disrupt a state's administration of its elections. I provide four conditions for courts to consider in determining whether injunctive relief is disruptive. But these conditions can also provide insight to future litigants making decisions about where, when, and how to bring their election claims to avoid running into Purcell's snare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This dossier focuses on exile as a political punishment and its relationship with women. Throughout time, exile has mainly affected men, but in recent decades there has been a shift in this dynamic. In Spain, during the Second Republic, women had direct roles and forms of resistance, while in Latin America they acquired rights with the proclamation of Universal Suffrage. The article analyzes the narrative work of Mercado and Peri Rossi from the perspective of exile, examining time, space, writing, and the (im)possibility of return. It also highlights the cultural and political role of women in various exiles of the 20th century, as well as the literary criticism of María Dolores Arana from her Mexican exile. [Extracted from the article]

Recent efforts to dismantle felon disenfranchisement regimes have the potential to substantially expand electoral eligibility among people with criminal records; however, even among those with criminal legal histories who are eligible to vote, voting rates are often extremely low. Analyzing interview, focus group, and text message conversations among a multi-state sample around the November 2022 election, we identify and describe how administrative barriers to voting—including a lack of understanding about the voting process, confusion about legal eligibility, and perceived risks of rearrest of voting while ineligible—pose an access to justice issue among system-impacted people. These barriers are amplified by government mistrust, specifically the perception that barriers are intentionally constructed to suppress voting, and they are potentially mitigated by outreach by community organizations that are viewed as credible. The findings emphasize that legislative reforms repealing disenfranchisement laws must be accompanied by on-the-ground efforts to address administrative burdens to broaden access to the franchise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit stating that § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is not enforceable by private litigants under an implied private right of action has many voting rights advocates rightfully concerned about the future of federal voting rights protections. Indeed, that ruling appears partly motivated by signals from the U.S. Supreme Court. However, not all hope is lost. In Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County v. Talevski, the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed its Gonzaga University v. Doe test for enforcing a statute under § 1983. The Talevski opinion provides a clear path for private litigants to enforce voting rights under § 1983 should an implied private right of action be unavailable. This Note considers how several circuit courts have applied the Supreme Court's § 1983 test to the materiality provision--a voting rights protection in Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, this Note argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit--the only court to consider whether the materiality provision is enforceable under § 1983 since Talevski--came to the correct conclusion. That is, the materiality provision is enforceable under § 1983. This Note concludes, however, that the Fifth Circuit's reasoning was incomplete. Talevski provides stronger support for enforcing voting rights under § 1983 than the Fifth Circuit suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In British society, historically it was assumed that a woman's place was principally in the domestic sphere. In the nineteenth century, in a changing social, political and economic context, British women found opportunities to take on roles outside the home. This paper explores the way nineteenth-century British Baptist women – slowly and over time – found ways to become more involved in denominational life, which culminated in their membership of the Baptist Union Council in 1911. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American democracy is in crisis. The emergence of affective polarization and populism has contributed to a divided America in which both sides perceive every election as an existential threat to their ways of life, values, and democracy itself. Central features of liberal democracy, including the right to vote, the system of checks and balances, and presidential transitions of power, appear to be collectively under threat in ways they have not been since the Civil War. Scholars diverge on both the sources of and responses to the crisis. For some, the problem is too much democracy, and the solution is less. For others, the problem is too little democracy, and the solution is more. This review offers a synthesis of the contrasting accounts of American democracy in crisis and advances a third alternative of better democracy as a key to escaping the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the enfranchisement process of the prison population in Chile. Although institutions were reluctant to grant the vote to this group for several years, in 2022, new policies allowed prisoners to suffrage for the first time. The Voto Preso movement, a set of organisations struggling for prisoners’ political participation, played a fundamental role in this transformation. However, incarcerated people's participation in constructing the movement's demands and strategies was scarce. Drawing on eleven interviews with key movement actors, the article sheds light on the main discourses by which it promoted the materialisation of Chilean prisoners’ voting rights. The article also critically scrutinises the consequences of prisoners’ limited inclusion in the Voto Preso movement. Finally, the article discusses how its analytical approach may open new avenues for studying prisoner dis/enfranchisement as a situated boundary issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Europe's parties realign around a new, transnational cleavage, this article turns back to a historical case in which national identity conflicts also coincided with profound economic transformation: multinational and industrializing Imperial Austria. While Austria is an important case for Lipset and Rokkan's classic cleavage theory, they overlooked the long evolution of its party system pre-WWI. This paper introduces the Habsburg Manifesto Dataset (HMD), demonstrating its usefulness by tracking the formation of Imperial Austrian party system cleavages under universal manhood suffrage. Based on the qualitative content analysis of historical electoral manifestos, HMD measures the policy offers and group appeals made by Imperial Austria's German and Czech parties. This allows testing Lipset and Rokkan's claims by applying contemporary methodologies to a case that was effectively excluded from their original analysis. Doing so reveals a surprising degree of structure: parties consistently combined issue and group claims around center-periphery, class, and state-church cleavages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between ownership and control concentration and voluntary disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Our sample was comprised of 207 listed firms with data among the period between 2012 and 2019. We collected firm's financial data and CSR reports, which were analyzed through logistic regression models. The main results suggest that the higher the concentration of equity shares with voting rights in the hands of the largest shareholder, or even the aggregate shares of the three largest ones, the less likely the firm is to voluntarily disclose CSR reports. This research demonstrates the relevance of legitimacy theory to explain aspects concerning capital markets and corporate reports disclosure. It also indicates a possible principal-principal conflict, in which the largest shareholders are not inclined to disclose CSR reports that could bring informational benefits to minority shareholders. Finally, this study highlights the need to protect minority shareholders in respect to their demands for voluntary CSR information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been an increase in rhetoric and efforts to block expanding voting rights to noncitizens around the United States, there is a relative lack of academic research examining the ideology, political actors, and strategy behind such efforts. In addressing this gap, we explore anti-immigrant voting rights campaigns as they relate to broader rightwing mobilization and voter suppression efforts. We draw upon the literature on Gramsci's conception of hegemony to document and analyze efforts to use state power to change constitutions and election laws in ways that politically disenfranchise working class people of color in order to institutionalize white minority rule. We explore the nature of this political project and how more conventional rightwing actors dovetail with grassroots extremism by examining both historical and contemporary cases. We show how these networks have employed a mix of legal, administrative, and violent tactics during the turn of the twentieth century as well as in the contemporary period to politically realize a common, exclusionary ideology to shape the electorate and polity. We argue struggles over noncitizen voting rights reflect debate about distinct visions of who properly constitutes "the people," and what is and should be the nature of the American polity: are we a white Anglo Christian republic or a multiracial egalitarian democracy? In so doing, we argue the rise and fall – and reemergence – of noncitizen immigrant voting rights in the U.S. represents a microcosm of the broader "voting wars" embroiling the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing political inclusion of diaspora populations around the world has raised questions about their influence on electoral outcomes back home. In Kenya, emigrants have advocated for direct influence through external voting rights, while less attention has been given to the ways in which they may also indirectly influence elections through economic remittances. In this research note, we explore diaspora efforts to influence elections through the perspectives of domestic voters, which are often overlooked in the literature on diaspora voting. We surveyed a nationally representative sample of eligible voters within Kenya prior to the August 2022 presidential election and posed parallel questions to a smaller sample of diaspora Kenyans. Domestic voters strongly support direct diaspora participation in elections for president, but not for lower-level offices. Our survey results also indicate that roughly one of every seven eligible voters in Kenya was encouraged to vote in the 2022 election by friends and family abroad from whom they receive remittances. Thus, emigrants may have more influence on elections through their connections at home than through their direct votes. Drawing on the Kenyan case, we explore some directions for future research on transnational citizenship and voting rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, British feminist advocate Anne Knight has been acknowledged for her pioneering role in women's suffrage propaganda. This article aims to rectify misinterpretations regarding Knight's contribution by re-evaluating her actions and materials during the 1840s. It argues that her significance lies in creatively deploying established tactics from various social movements and diverse texts to invigorate the women's suffrage cause, showcasing sustained commitment across diverse domains. This article is structured into four sections. Firstly, it provides a concise biography of Anne Knight, accompanied by an evaluation of previous studies. Secondly, by re-examining her feminist propaganda, it establishes that Knight's role as a creator of the material, rather than the original author, does not diminish her creativity but underscores strategic adaptability in media use and translating discourse into action. Thirdly, through an exploration of her writings and practices, this article investigates the divergence within women's suffrage activism in contemporary British society. Lastly, it delves into Knight's discourse and actions during the French Second Republic, revealing her distinctive role and the broader significance of women's collective struggle. In summary, this article unveils the intricate facets of Knight's pioneering role, offering a nuanced understanding of early Victorian Britain's women's suffrage activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Important changes took place in Germany with regards to the delimitation of the single-member districts now used for electing the Bundestag and the legislatures of 13 Länder. This manuscript measures electoral malapportionment in all federal and state elections held since the 1940s and finds a significant (if uneven) trend towards more equal voting power for citizens. Why did this development take place? This manuscript argues that the impetus for reform came from the judiciary rather than from incumbent legislators. The latter had little individual or party interest for such changes but were faced with court decisions that demanded action. The legal framework was certainly a contributing factor, as evidenced by the creation in 1956 of a federal standing boundary commission, to report following each election, and the limitation of acceptable deviations from the average, a landmark move that was emulated by most Länder much later. Such developments are summarised, and significant reductions of the level of malapportionment are connected with judicial decisions and changes in redistribution rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of the duty to vote (DTV) argue that in normal circumstances, citizens have the moral duty to vote in political elections. Discussions about DTV analyze what the duty is, who has this duty, when they have it, and why they have it. Missing are answers to the Specification Question: to which elections does DTV apply? A dilemma arises for some supporters of DTV—in this paper, I focus on Julia Maskivker's work—because either answer is problematic. First, I argue that it is implausible that DTV applies to all elections because this makes the duty too costly for the voter. Second, I argue that there are no good reasons why under normal circumstances DTV applies only to some elections. I consider objections but conclude that the dilemma is successful and therefore the case for DTV is incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: Business rescue, as a mechanism to aid financially distressed companies in South Africa, has received considerable academic and practical recognition. However, the business rescue plan is an overlooked and, perhaps, underdeveloped aspect of the regime. For stakeholders, this is the ultimate decision-making document. Creditors are the most influential stakeholders in business rescue proceedings owing to their voting rights. For creditors to make informed decisions and exercise their votes meaningfully, the business rescue plan should be transparent and adequately disclose relevant and reliable information. This study aims to identify creditors' primary information needs to enhance the sufficiency and decision-usefulness of business rescue plans, not only to entice the vote of creditors but to enforce accountability from practitioners. Design/methodology/approach: Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 executives from 10 South African financial institutions. Findings: The findings reveal that comprehensive disclosure of financial, commercial and legal information in business rescue plans was a critical antecedent for stakeholder decision-making. Additionally, leadership and social impact information were influential determinants. This study advances academic knowledge and, for practitioners, adds value to the development of business rescue plans. This can enhance creditors' confidence in supporting the rescue effort and approving the plan. Practical implications: This study advances academic knowledge and, for practitioners, adds value to the development of business rescue plans. This can enhance creditors' confidence in supporting the rescue effort and approving the plan. Originality/value: The originality of this article lies in its investigation of how creditors assess the information in BR plans as a precursor to supporting the company's reorganisation in a creditor-friendly business rescue system such as South Africa. This study provides novel insights into the decision-making process, particularly how creditors assess BR plans, address information asymmetry and vote on the plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a distinct privilege, yet one taken with deep regret, to honor the economist Yoram Barzel, who died on December 22, 2022. His impact as both teacher and scholar [...]

On January 6,2021, a mob attacked the United States Capitol to overthrow the certification of the legitimately elected president and install the election loser, Donald Trump. Before this, there was another coup attempt. Trump and his team pressured state legislators and officials not to certify legitimately elected presidential electors, and to instead certify fake electors for Trump. This was based on the theory that the Constitution grants states "plenary power" to select presidential electors, even if this means cancelling citizen elections or rejecting their outcome. The coups There should be no next time. The Supreme Court should reject the "plenary power" theory, and rule instead that citizens have a right to vote for president under the Constitution. The "plenary power" theory is radically wrong because several constitutional amendments establish that citizens have what the Constitution calls a "right to vote"--including the right to choose presidential electors. The "plenary power" theory was born in Supreme Court decisions during the late 1800s Jim Crow era and re-embraced by the Court in its controversial 2000 Bush v. Gore decision. This Article explains how the "plenary power" theory is wrong as a matter of constitutional textualism, irreconcilable with other Court right-to-vote precedent, abrogated by history, and irredeemably illegitimate because of its juridical origins in racism and sexism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most electoral behavior affects politics in just one political community, migrant voters may affect turnout rates in two: the countries of origin and residence. Considering this context, we evaluate individual-level intentions to vote in national elections, as an emigrant for origin-country elections and as an immigrant in the residence country. Examining South-South migrants, our dataset comprises 1,477 respondents from an online survey during Chile's 2017 presidential election; 94.7% are from Latin American countries, meaning most also hold external voting rights. Chile automatically registers immigrants in the electorate for multilevel elections after a five-year residence; we find many respondents are ill-informed about this, but those who know they can vote show higher probabilities of being an immigrant voter (they vote only in the residence country) or a dual transnational voter (they vote in both countries). Being interested in politics also increases the decision to vote in not just one but two countries. Longer intention to stay increases immigrant and dual transnational voting, while decreases emigrant voting. We also find that high self-reported discrimination is conducive to participating only in origin-country elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its proclamation of universal suffrage in 1952, Bolivia fits into Samuel Huntington's "second short wave of democratization" (1943–1963). In 1952, all women and men gained the right to vote, marking a significant step towards democratization by including previously excluded groups. Literate women had already obtained municipal voting rights in 1945 under a populist government aiming for broader political participation. However, women first voted in 1947, after the oligarchy overthrew this government in 1946 and sought to regain power by repressing the opposition parties and previously marginalized sectors. Unexpectedly, it supported women's suffrage for national elections by the late 1940s. What prompted various political parties to support women's suffrage in the late 1940s? This paper explores how women in Bolivia gained the right to vote and what role the feminist movement and power struggles played in obtaining women's suffrage. Beginning in the 1920s with a study of the emergence of the feminist movement and its evolution during the decades of the 1930s (the Chaco War) and 1940s, the paper culminates with an assessment of feminism's impact on public opinion as well as the importance of the growing politicization of women in the 1940s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We offer a new interpretation of the structure of municipal electoral competition in Vancouver, focusing on the city's high-profile municipal election in 2018. Using novel "cast vote records"—a dataset containing each of the 176,450 ballots cast in the city's municipal election—we use a Bayesian multidimensional scaling procedure to estimate the location of every 2018 candidate and voter in Vancouver in a shared two-dimensional political space. We then use data from the Canadian Municipal Election Study (CMES), a large election survey undertaken in Vancouver in 2018, to interpret this political space, assessing 96 possible correlates of CMES respondents' locations in political space. We find evidence of a single primary dimension of competition, structured by left-right ideology, along with a secondary dimension dividing establishment from upstart parties of the right. Our paper supplies a new interpretation of Vancouver's electoral landscape, clarifies our understanding of the role of left-right ideology in municipal electoral competition, and demonstrates the promise of cast vote records for research on municipal elections and voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the American democratic model and its influence on parliamentary law. It highlights the evolution of democracy and the importance of voting in contemporary western societies. The article explains the principles underlying parliamentary law, such as the recognition of rights held by various parties and constituencies. It also discusses the role of parliamentary procedure in facilitating decision-making in deliberative assemblies. The article emphasizes the need to understand the democratic model and its application in different types of assemblies, while also recognizing the diverse nature of contemporary western society. [Extracted from the article]

AbstractIn this article, we utilize resources mainly provided by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate along with other primary and secondary sources to discuss a unit plan for students to research voting rights issues in modern American society. First, a brief historical overview of voting rights issues in the United States is given. Next, our focus shifts to give a short literature review on the importance of teaching public issues as well as the significance of class discussions with topics some may deem controversial. Finally, the steps and resources of our unit plan are discussed. The unit plan is framed for the middle school social studies classroom and draws on relevant indicators from the C3 Framework by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines William Sharman Crawford's participation in mid-nineteenth-century popular radicalism in England. Despite his unusual background as a wealthy Irish landlord and his limitations as a politician, Sharman Crawford emerged as an important figure in Chartism, especially during the early 1840s when he served as MP for Rochdale. His support from across Chartism resulted from his principled positions, particularly on suffrage, that demonstrated a commitment to democracy pursued through constitutional means. He emphasized the unjust nature of the exclusive legislation that resulted from an inadequate franchise and framed Chartist reforms as echoing past efforts in England and Ireland. Drawing on archival materials and the newspaper press, this article argues for Sharman Crawford's significance in bridging the divides of radicalism in this era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The freedom of speech - an essential cornerstone of American democracy - is under direct attack, leaving American institutions, civic culture, and society deeply vulnerable. Restrictions on books and educational curricula, limits on assembly rights, the rampant spread of disinformation, the chill of "cancel culture " and online abuse- all impinge upon the open exchange of ideas that the First Amendment was intended to underwrite. Encroachments on freedom of expression emanate from all sides of the political spectrum and through both formal and informal channels. It is imperative that efforts to contain and surmount the crisis of American democracy include a sharpened focus on the defense of free speech, an essential counterpart to voting rights, civil rights, and a healthy democratic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article claims that recent Supreme Court decisions have allowed state lawmakers to suppress and skew but not subvert the vote. The Court relaxed federal oversight of state election administration in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), Abbott v. Perez (2018), and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021), and gerrymandering in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), while prohibiting independent state legislative election regulation in Moore v. Harper (2023). These decisions guided state lawmakers toward vote suppression and skewing, and away from election subversion. Consequently, Republican state legislatures have passed state constitutional amendments and statutes limiting ballot access and reforming state redistricting practices. While some Democratic state legislatures have protected ballot access and independent redistricting, these recent Supreme Court decisions help Republicans win a disproportionate share of state legislative seats. National courts thus help preserve the national party coalition by opening subnational jurisdictions to party entrenchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With ever-increasing gridlock and polarization at the national level, many new policy changes in the United States have come at the state level. This includes legislation that restricts the right to vote, limits free speech and expression, and gerrymanders state legislative and congressional districts. A growing body of literature describes these changes, when taken together, as evidence of subnational democratic backsliding. Yet this literature largely ignores the effects of federalism on the structure of institutions within the states, particularly on judicial independence. In this article, I examine the relationship between measures of democracy and introduction of court-curbing legislation in the states. Focusing on instances of court packing, changing the methods of selection and retention, and impeachment, I show that heightened attacks on judicial independence are associated with other types of democratic backsliding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with rising levels of cross-border migration, many countries have extended local voting rights to non-citizen residents. However, empirical evidence indicates that voter turnout among non-naturalized immigrants is lower when compared to citizens. This raises the question of how to explain this difference. A common answer is that the low turnout rates of non-citizen residents are primarily due to the socio-economic composition of this group and the challenges involved in adapting to a new political system. An alternative but less discussed possibility is that the low turnout concerns the nature of the elections. Hence, we examine whether the turnout of non-citizens is hampered because they are only allowed to partake in local elections. Based on a regression discontinuity design (RDD) using Swedish administrative data, we find that turnout could increase by 10–20 percentage points if the voting rights of non-citizens were extended to the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just weeks before the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization abolished the individual right to terminate a pregnancy without government interference, Republican Senators in then-Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings queried her about the Ninth Amendment twenty-three times. Because the Ninth Amendment has long been treated as either excess verbiage or a rule of construction, the Senators' redundant questioning was auspicious: Could it play a role in the 6-3 conservative majority's reconfiguration of twentieth century constitutional law precedent? This Article explores the potential relationship between the Ninth Amendment and the modern Court's approach to unenumerated rights as a matter of substantive due process. It posits that, from the federalism vantage point outlined in dissenting opinions in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Ninth Amendment, considered alongside Dobbs, may be positioned to justify reversion Of other unenumerated rights to state legislatures within a generation's time. The problem with the Dobbs approach is that reliance on federalism as the panacea for rights protection is, empirically speaking, a myth. The majority in Dobbs signaled a penchant toward a restrictive view of unenumerated rights using "history and tradition as the touchstone, emboldening the role of States over other sources of what Justice John Paul Stevens once called the "conceptual core " of liberty. But the Dobbs majority wrongly assumed that the electoral system works fairly to reflect the actual will of the voting public. It also ignored the Supreme Court's decades-long hostility to voting rights, unnecessarily limiting the ability of individuals to elect representatives who will respond to the will of constituents. The Court's new doctrinal trajectory is thus not sufficiently robust to protect the individual from government overreach. Long before Griswold, the Court outlined an approach to unenumerated rights in Meyer v. Nebraska, which recognized rights beyond the Constitution's text as necessary to liberty while at the same time confining unelected judges' power to recognize new rights arbitrarily. Viewed as a mechanism for cabining the vast powers of government, Meyer offers a paradigm-shift in rights analysis--one that is grounded in the Court's precedent as positive law--that would appropriately tether it to the concepts of limited government that deeply animate the Constitution rather than on socially controversial culture debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complex and non-linear process of democratization in Sweden after the introduction of so-called universal suffrage in 1921. The research questions address the excluded groups post-1921, the reasons for their exclusion, and the historical processes that led to further expansions of suffrage rights. The study shows that the expansion of suffrage rights in Sweden after 1921 was not guided primarily by a desire to broaden voter inclusion and/or rectify the limitations of the 1921 legislation. Instead, the motivations were embedded in a more intricate and multifaceted tapestry of political aims and alliances as well as situational factors that included various social, economic, and cultural shifts. The article concludes that the history of suffrage in Sweden after 1921 has been one of continuous negotiations, transformations, and adaptations, and that this provides valuable insights for addressing challenges of political inclusion and representation in the present and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1915 woman's suffrage was on the ballot in Pennsylvania. State suffrage organizations mounted a vibrant campaign using a variety of strategies in support of enfranchising the women of the Keystone State. Speakers played a central role in this campaign, including a four-month lecture tour by African American author and educator, Alice Dunbar-Nelson. She kept a scrapbook of her tour that reveals her recognition of its historical significance. Her scrapbook also highlights the role of African American women who worked toward the goal of voting rights for all in Pennsylvania. Finally, it illuminates the strategies used by Pennsylvania suffrage leaders. While the men of the state voted down the suffrage referendum in 1915, the hard work of suffragists, including Dunbar-Nelson and other African Americans, paid off four years later when Pennsylvania became the seventh state to ratify the nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution on June 24, 1919. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As alternative media, suffrage periodicals played an important role in women's fight for universal suffrage, which marked a milestone on the road to democracy. Opening up a space for women in public discourse, these papers shaped and were shaped by processes of democratisation. This study explores how they balanced informative, propagandistic and commercial functions, and how women positioned themselves and others as social actors in the context of the movement, challenging gender ideologies. In line with Rühlemann and Aijmer's (2015) notion of corpus pragmatics, the study combines the assets of corpus-linguistic methods, e.g., by drawing on keywords as pointers to relevant areas of interest, with a pronounced qualitative perspective, complementing the search results by features demanding manual analysis and discussing the findings in their socio-historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth in per pupil education spending in the United States was mostly flat until 1918, after which it increased by almost 100 percent in a brief six-year period. This is the fastest documented increase in per pupil education spending in U.S. history. Using newly digitized biennial data on 386 of the largest urban school systems in the United States from 1900 to 1930, I investigate the origins of this spending increase. I first document that there was significant expansion in all spending and revenue categories with particularly large increases in capital expenditures, which were likely financed through borrowing. My results suggest that state education policies were largely ineffective in increasing school resources, as laws increasing state aid to local districts crowded out local receipts while compulsory schooling and English-only laws were not accompanied by increases in receipts or expenditures per pupil. Rather, I find that substantial increases in educational spending per pupil were linked to women's suffrage. Providing women with the right to vote can explain about 20 percent of the increase in per pupil spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama, a symbol of the American Civil Rights Movement and an exemplar of early 20th-century engineering, stands as a testament to the progress and challenges of its era. The bridge, recognized for its pivotal role in the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" conflict and the following Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights, also represents significant engineering achievements with its distinctive design and construction methodology. In this study, the research team presents a comprehensive framework for documenting heritage bridges by utilizing Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) technology, supplemented by other Reality Capture (RC) techniques, including Structure from Motion (SfM), 360-degree photography, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and integrating the data within a Building Information Modeling (BIM) environment. The focus on the Edmund Pettus Bridge case study demonstrates how this novel approach can capture the intricate details of its structural and architectural features while preserving its historical narratives. The documentation outcomes, including a detailed BIM model and a set of Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) drawings, highlight the effectiveness of combining TLS and BIM in conserving unconventional heritage structures like bridges. This paper also discusses the technological challenges encountered, such as dealing with heavy traffic and environmental constraints during data acquisition and developing the BIM model and drawings. It outlines the strategies implemented to address these issues. This research contributes to preserving a severely under-represented American National Historic Landmark (NHL). It sets a precedent for documenting other non-building heritage structures, balancing technological advancements with historical integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Burlington's recent expansion of voting rights to certain immigrants in municipal elections, highlighting its procedural journey and implications. Topics include historical precedents of noncitizen voting, legislative processes involving city and state levels, community responses, and implications for broader immigrant rights movements.

The article focuses on 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 which allows private individuals and groups to sue to enforce their voting rights under section 2 independently of actions by the Attorney General. It state that Plaintiffs must demonstrate the same elements as those required for a vote dilution or denial claim. It mentions that the provision serves as a crucial tool for plaintiffs and advocates in defending equal voting rights against antidemocratic challenges through litigation in the courts.

Election officials across the country are turning away voters when they perceive a mismatch between the sex listed on the voter’s identification and the voter’s gender presentation. The problem is particularly acute for transgender and gender nonconforming voters. This Note presents a fifty-state survey of voter ID laws and shows that there is no legal basis for using a mismatch or perceived mismatch between a voter’s documented sex and their gender presentation to deny the franchise. No language in any state statute indicates that an individual’s sex is required as evidence of their identity. Furthermore, this Note argues that changing the statutes to require sex as an identity qualifier would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in at least two ways. First, such a requirement would amount to sex discrimination as that term is best understood in light of Bostock v. Clayton County. Second, under the Supreme Court’s voting rights jurisprudence, such a requirement would constitute an invidious restriction on the right to vote, triggering strict scrutiny under Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. Even if it did not amount to such a restriction, the requirement of sex as a voter qualification would still be struck down under the sliding scale scrutiny of the Anderson-Burdick doctrine. Thus, hinging the right to vote on the verification of one’s sex is almost certainly unconstitutional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]