We talk this week about elections and markets for votes with election-law scholar Kareem Crayton. Calling in from Hong Kong, where the design of elections looms large, Kareem chats with us about what elections are meant to do, the private and public nature of the voting booth, the practical legal immunity of decisions made for illegitimate reasons, comparisons of elections and other markets for products, racism, the Voting Rights Act, and more. Is racism more like polio or high blood pressure?

This show’s links:


Kareem Crayton’s writing
Glossip v. Gross
Michael Dorf, Evolving Standards of Decency that Mark the Progress of Maturing Justices
Orin Kerr, Why the Late-Career Conversions at the Supreme Court on the Death Penalty?
United States v. Quinones (Judge Rakoff’s district court opinion striking down the death penalty in 2002, later reversed)
Josh Lee, Dignity Kennedy, Burkean Kennedy, and Libertarian Kennedy
Josh Lee, Determinism and the Death Penalty
Josh Lee, Judicial Abolition from Below
BBC, Hong Kong’s Democracy Debate (an explainer)
Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n
Giles v. Harris
Romer v. Evans
Busbee v. Smith (a 1982 decision containing finding of fact 17, that a Georgia representative was a racist)
Shelby County v. Holder
Brief of Political Science and Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Shelby County
Kareem Crayton, Five Justices, Section 4, and Three Ways Forward in Voting Rights
Kareem Crayton, Sword, Shield, and Compass: The Uses and Misuses of Racially Polarized Voting Studies in Voting Rights Enforcement
Kareem Crayton, Take Down the Confederate Flag
Special Guest: Kareem Crayton.