Why voting is different

Article Abstract:

The Supreme Court has erred in attempting to apply general equal protection principles and standards to reapportionment cases because voting rights dilution cases are fundamentally different from affirmative action and other efforts to remedy past discrimination. Since 1993, the Court has attempted to apply the standard strict scrutiny test to redistricting cases. This approach is flawed because electoral districts are always drawn with an awareness of race making race neutrality impossible. Unlike other equal protection cases, it is also appropriate in the voting context to think in terms of group rights.

Laws, regulations and rules, Remedies, Equality before the law, Equal protection, Voting, Apportionment (Election law)

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Contingent fees and criminal cases

Article Abstract:

The conventional justification for banning contingent fees in criminal cases is based on superficial distinctions between civil and criminal procedure. However, use of contingent fees in criminal cases does create problems such as shifting costs onto the innocent, providing incentives for dishonesty between attorney and client, incurring information problems and threatening the role of defense counsel. Nevertheless, contingent fees may be advantageous in some cases, especially those involving white-collar defendants. A bonus based on outcome might also be beneficial in cases involving appointed counsel.

Standards, Finance, Defense (Criminal procedure), Contingency fees

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Court still ambivalent on redistricting

Article Abstract:

The US Supreme Court's rulings on June 29, 1995, in Miller v Johnson and Hays v Louisiana provide few clues on what sorts of voting districts are acceptable in the wake of 1993's Shaw v Reno. The court has also accepted two more such cases for review in the next term, raising still more questions. It suggested in Miller that the Justice Dept should have accepted a reapportionment with two majority-black districts, while abandoning the Shaw decision's emphasis on bizarre-appearing districts and on representational harms. In any case, more lawsuits seem inevitable.

Election districts, Gerrymander, Gerrymandering

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