Latest 2 Cases: De La Fuente v. Simon (Civil Rights), State v. Smith (Criminal Law)

Can the Republicans Cancel the Elections, Even Though Trump Can’t?

NEIL H. BUCHANAN

UF Levin College of Law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan considers whether (and how) President Trump or his supporters in Congress could cancel the 2020 elections, citing public safety as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Buchanan points out that because states control the procedures for the election, Trump would need Republican governors of certain blue states to shut down their state’s elections—something Buchanan stops short of saying is likely or unlikely.

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The Lessons the Coronavirus Crisis Can Teach Us About the Religious Liberty that Serves the Public Good (aka the Framers’ Religious Liberty)

MARCI A. HAMILTON

Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the country’s leading church-state scholars, describes some of the lessons the novel coronavirus pandemic can teach us about religious liberty. Hamilton points out that COVID-19 is nondenominational and nonpartisan, yet we are already seeing some groups claim to be exempt from the public-health prohibitions on large gatherings, on the basis of their religious beliefs.

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De La Fuente v. Simon

Docket: A19-1994

Opinion Date: March 18, 2020

Judge: Per Curiam

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Election Law

The Supreme Court denied Petitioners' petition filed under Minn. Stat. 204B.44(a) asking that the Supreme Court direct the Minnesota Secretary of State to include Roque De La Fuente's name as a candidate for The Republican Party of Minnesota's nomination for United States President on the ballot for the Minnesota presidential nomination primary election on March 3, 2020, holding that Petitioners' claims failed. Petitioners argued that the procedure established by Minn. Stat. 207A.13, which allows a major political party to determine which candidates' names will be on the ballot for a statewide presidential nomination primary, was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that section 207A.13 does not violate (1) the prohibition against special privileges because the Legislature had a rational basis for classifying political parties based on a party's participation in a national convention to nominate the party's presidential candidate; (2) the Presidential Eligibility Clause because requiring a political party to identify the candidates for the ballot to be used in a presidential nomination primary is not a condition of eligibility to serve as President of the United States; and (3) Petitioners' rights of free association because any burden imposed on those rights by the ballot preparation procedures is outweighed by the associational rights of political parties and the State's regulatory interests.

State v. Smith

Docket: A19-0695

Opinion Date: March 18, 2020

Judge: Chutich

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions for eight crimes relating to the break in, robbery, and murder at James Herron's home but reversed the sentence imposed on Defendant for the first-degree aggravated robbery of Herron, holding that Defendant could not properly be sentenced for both first-degree murder while committing an aggravated robbery and first-degree aggravated robbery. Specifically, the Court held (1) the district court properly admitted Spreigl evidence at trial; (2) the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Defendant's proposed defense of duress; (3) even assuming without deciding that the district court erred by admitting evidence from Defendant's Facebook account, including business records and photos, the error was harmless; but (4) the district court erred by sentencing Defendant for more than one of the additional crimes committed against Herron after the initial burglary.