Election Law's Lochnerian Turn
14 Pages Posted: 3 Apr 2014 Last revised: 14 May 2014
Date Written: April 2, 2014
Abstract
Part of a discussion on electoral “dysfunction,” this Essay suggests that the Roberts Court has come to view a good deal of contemporary electoral regulation as impermissibly redistributive. The Court, moreover, sees the type of political participation displaced by many contemporary regulations as a neutral baseline against which to gauge challenged regulations rather than itself the product of affirmative regulation. Put differently, this Essay presses the claim that the present Court confronts contemporary efforts to regulate the electoral process much like the Lochner Court approached progressive wage and hour legislation a century ago. It suggests that much of what the Roberts Court has been up to in the electoral arena may be explained by the dominant understanding of the Lochner era.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation