Category: Democracy
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A Look Back at Washington State’s Senate Bill (SB) 5843: Constitutional or Not?
By Alexandra Orbuch — Introduced by the Washington State legislature in January 2022, Senate Bill (SB) 5843 attempted to criminalize statements made by elected officials or candidates that: (a) Are intended to incite or produce imminent lawless action and do…
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The Problems with Legislative Overrides of Judicial Rulings
By Beck Reiferson and Benjamin Edelson — In April 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order establishing the ‘Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States,’ a commission of legal scholars formed to discuss potential reforms to…
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National Popular Vote: Circumventing the United States Constitution
By Alexandra Orbuch — In 2016, Donald Trump became President of the United States after winning a majority of electors (he won 304 electoral votes, surpassing the necessary 270 votes) but losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. For reference, the…
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The Attractive Non-Sequitur of Democracy and Distrust
By JC Martinez — When it comes to interpreting the Constitution, there is a critical and possibly irresolvable dilemma which lies at the crux of countless arguments: should justices remain rigidly faithful to the original intent of the document’s writers…
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Tyranny of the Minority: The Unconstitutionality of the Filibuster
By Madeleine Polubinski — In recent years, congressional gridlock has focused national attention on the Senate’s filibuster. The filibuster is the process by which a minority of senators delay or prevent a vote on legislation by speaking as long as…
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Making the Case for Trump’s January 6th Speech as Incitement
By Beck Reiferson — On January 12th, Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Law School and one of the nation’s most prominent attorneys, published an op-ed in the publication Newsweek in which he argued against the second impeachment of President…
