Ed Whelan, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is the latest legal scholar to destroy the Democrat Party’s unofficial election law professor Rick Hasen. (See Professor Brad Smith's recent rebuke here.) The problem for Hasen is that he seems to have given up on efforts at scholarship and is focusing on advancing Democrat Party agenda and liberal political ideology. Hasen’s latest attack is on conservative icon, the deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Republican National Lawyers Association is very pleased to announce that we will be honoring Ashley Carter as our 2018 Betty Murphy Award recipient. This award will be presented to Ashley during the RNLA’s 2018 National Policy Conference on April 27, 2018.  

Charles Lane has good editorial entitled "This solution to gerrymandering is worse than the problem," explaining the dangers of why courts, even the Supreme Court, should not be involved in political redistricting. He likens it to the Supreme Court considering censoring “blue” or pornographic movies in the 1970s. Yes, it is distasteful but the alternative of the court deciding whether every film is “too blue” is not the best or appropriate role for a court.

While Drudge Report and other places are reporting President Trump’s 50% approval rating, there is another number that many have missed that is much higher.  In another poll by Rasmussen nearly 90% approve of an accurate census and 66% approve of asking a person’s citizenship as part of the decennial census of 2020:

The RNLA is pleased to announce that former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will speak at the National Policy Conference on Friday, April 27.  Tickets and more information are available here.  Unlike previous years, walk-up registration will not be available this year.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would launch an internal investigation into possible Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by the DOJ under the Obama Administration during the 2016 election. Inspector General Michael Horowitz, an Obama appointee, will lead the investigation within the DOJ.

This morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Benisek v. Lamone, a First Amendment retaliation challenge to Maryland's 6th Congressional district lines.  This is the second partisan gerrymandering case the Court has heard this term, after Gill v. Whitford in October.  

Last week, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from a denial of certiorari in Garco Construction v. Speer.  They would have granted cert to determine whether Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., and the deference to agencies' interpretation of their own regulations and rules contained in them, should be overruled.  Their dissent is a succinct indictment of this deference to administrative agencies' interpretations and a defense of the separation of powers (internal citations and notes omitted):

Paul Baier, appellate lawyer and law professor at Louisiana State University, penned a glowing endorsement of his former courtroom adversary and friend Kyle Duncan recently in The Hill. Mr. Duncan was nominated by President Trump to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals back on September 28, 2017 and his nomination is pending a full Senate confirmation vote.

The Senate recessed today for two weeks and most people are focusing on the Omnibus. The government funding issue is important but so are the people who work for the government. Using obstruction tactics in unprecedented fashion, Democrats have fought against confirming Trump appointees to run the government. As Politifact recently reported: