My litigation status update: Things are moving fast

Preview of my members-only newsletters One of my favorite quotes is from the German American economist Rudiger Dornbusch. “In economics,” he said, “things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.” The same is true in politics and law. After a meandering 2023 and a distracted first half of this year, suddenly, in the matter of a few weeks, everything about the 2024 election is now moving very fast. Campaign messages that once seemed old and tired now pop off the page and screen. Electoral strategies that were rutted in deep electoral groves are now bursting with new possibilities. For reasons having more to do with the calendar than the candidates, the courts are also now fully engaged in the throes of litigation that may well decide the outcome of the 2024 elections. The last month has seen several critical victories for voters in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin. Donald Trump’s campaign has ramped up its own litigation as its allies continue to file anti-voting lawsuits at a record pace. Things are now changing day to day, hour to hour. Consider this: On the morning that Joe Biden stepped aside from seeking renomination, Speaker Mike Johnson gleefully predicted that such a move would face legal challenges. Now that his claims have been debunked, it is Republicans who ponder the risk of litigation if they attempt to throw their ill-advised vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance, overboard. For those of you who followed the legal battles in 2020, we are beginning the part of the campaign cycle when the news about voting and election legal challenges come fast from many directions. To help you, we now have daily and weekly newsletters and a litigation scoreboard. Most importantly, we have this members-only newsletter reflecting on the past month and looking toward what might happen in the month ahead. So, let’s get started.

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My takeaways from last month To understand what the litigation road ahead looks like, we must remember that the law exists in the context of all in which we live and all that came before us… What I’m watching for With fewer than 100 days until the election, we must imagine what will be, unburdened by what was… What I’m waiting for The cases on the docket today did not just fall out of a coconut tree…

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