The Hill reports: Pressure from the leading presidential candidates has set the stage for a Feb. 5 national primary that will likely include 20 states, possibly more.

Working behind the scenes and mostly through surrogates, Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), and Republicans Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have fueled a rush of states to hold primary elections on Feb. 5 next year, or earlier. As many as 23 states are in the frame to hold primary elections on that date.

Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico and Oklahoma in 2004 held their nominating contests on the first Tuesday of February, and are likely be joined this time by such big states as California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Texas. They may be joined also by smaller states including Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, North Dakota, Utah, Kansas, Colorado and (for the GOP only) West Virginia and Nevada. The legislatures of Pennsylvania and North Carolina are holding hearings on the issue but the outcomes of these are uncertain.

Allies of candidates who expect to do well in these states are taking lead roles in moving primaries there to early February. By holding primaries soon after the Iowa caucuses, the first contest of the year, such states will have a bigger impact than before on who becomes the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. -- Feb. 5 national primary

Thanks to Political Insider for the link.

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The FEC announces: The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced today that it has reached a settlement with the Progress for America Voter Fund (PFA-VF), a 527 organization accused of violating Federal campaign finance laws during the 2004 Presidential election. PFA-VF agreed to pay $750,000 to settle charges that it failed to register and file disclosure reports as a Federal political committee and accepted contributions in violation of Federal limits and source prohibitions. This represents the third largest civil penalty in the Commission’s thirty-two year history. The Commission unanimously approved the conciliation agreement.

“This settlement demonstrates once again that the Commission is serious about enforcing the campaign finance law,” said FEC Chairman Robert Lenhard. “It should now be clear to organizations that want to be active in the 2008 cycle that the activities we saw in this case are prohibited under the law.”

PFA-VF raised $44.9 million in contributions in the months preceding the 2004 General Election. Over $41 million of those funds consisted of excessive contributions from individuals, while over $2 million came from sources prohibited from making contributions under the Act. PFA-VF funded over $31.1 million in communications related to the 2004 General Election, including television and radio advertisements, direct mailings, email communications, and Internet banner ads. Certain communications expressly advocated either the election of President George W. Bush or the defeat of Senator John Kerry, constituting expenditures under the Act. -- 0228MUR5487

Thanks to Brett Kappel for sending me the link to this.

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beSpacific reports: "OpenCongress brings together official government information with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress. Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists know what's really going on in Congress. Now, everyone can be an insider. OpenCongress is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation." -- Free, Open Source Site Covering Congressional Bills, News, Gossip and Elected Officials

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The New York Times reports: With a June primary that had become all but irrelevant, New Jersey would be romanced by presidential aspirants for its money — but rarely for its voters.

So under a measure approved unanimously on Monday by an Assembly committee, the state’s presidential primary would be held on the first Tuesday in February — or Feb. 5 next year.

The measure, which has been passed by the Senate and has received the blessing of Gov. Jon S. Corzine, would link the state with a round of early primaries in five other states. Next, the measure will be voted on by the full Assembly. Twelve other states are also considering holding primaries on the same day. ...

Last year lawmakers approved moving the primary from June to the last Tuesday in February, but the Democratic National Committee changed its primary schedule, forcing New Jersey to take another cut at it. -- New Jersey Moves to Join Early Presidential Primaries - New York Times

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The Washington Post reports: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton have operated a family charity since 2001, but she failed to list it on annual Senate financial disclosure reports on five occasions.

The Ethics in Government Act requires members of Congress to disclose positions they hold with any outside entity, including nonprofit foundations. Hillary Clinton has served her family foundation as treasurer and secretary since it was established in December 2001, but none of her ethics reports since then have disclosed that fact.

The foundation has enabled the Clintons to write off more than $5 million from their taxable personal income since 2001, while dispensing $1.25 million in charitable contributions over that period.

Clinton's spokesman said her failure to report the existence of the family foundation and the senator's position as an officer was an oversight. Her office immediately amended her Senate ethics reports to add that information late yesterday after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post. -- Clintons' Charity Not Listed On Senate Disclosure Forms - washingtonpost.com

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The Worcester Telegram reports: There are races in town this year for selectmen and the Planning Board, but they are not what has poll watchers talking.

When residents go to vote in the April 2 annual town election, they will see what some might view as a sacrilege in their polling places. Voters used to the efficient clunking of the wooden hand-crank ballot boxes will also be able to cast votes at an electronic machine.

Town Clerk Melanie Mangum said Friday the state has provided the town with two electronic machines to allow handicapped voters better use of the polls. The machines will have a voice option for the sight-impaired, a touch screen, and other options to make it easier for people to vote. -- Worcester Telegram & Gazette News

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The Boston Globe reports: By a 20-4 vote, Newton aldermen approved allowing residents who are not US citizens the right to vote in local elections.

Ted Hess-Mahan , alderman at large from Ward 3 , sponsored the measure, saying it is only fair that residents who pay taxes, send their kids to school, and own property in Newton should also be able to vote on measures that affect them. The overwhelming vote contrasts with 2005, when Hess-Mahan couldn't drum up support for a similar proposal. -- Newton aldermen OK vote for noncitizens - The Boston Globe

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The New York Times reports: Florida election officials announced yesterday that an examination of voting software did not find any malfunctions that could have caused up to 18,000 votes to be lost in a disputed Congressional race in Sarasota County, and they suggested that voter confusion over a poor ballot design was mainly to blame.

The finding, reached unanimously by a team of computer experts from several universities, could finally settle last fall’s closest federal election. The Republican candidate, Vern Buchanan, was declared the winner by 369 votes, but the Democrat, Christine Jennings, formally contested the results, claiming that the touch-screen voting machines must have malfunctioned.

Legal precedents make it difficult to win a lawsuit over ballot design, but a substantial error in the software might have been grounds for a new election.

The questions about the electronic machines arose because many voters complained that they had had trouble getting their votes to register for Ms. Jennings, and the machines did not have a back-up paper trail that might have provided clues about any problems. The report said some voters might have accidentally touched the screen twice, thus negating their votes, while most of the others probably overlooked the race on the flawed ballot. -- Panel Cites Voter Error, Not Software, in Loss of Votes - New York Times

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The New York Times reports: When Michael J. Bragman, a onetime Assembly majority leader, retired from the New York State Legislature in 2001, his campaign committee had about $1 million in the bank. Six years later, Mr. Bragman is still retired, and $400,000 of that money is gone.

Mr. Bragman did not run for office again. But he did pay his wife $24,000 a year to work for a campaign committee that did no campaigning. And he spent thousands more on bottles of wine, meals at a yacht club, Christmas gifts and office rental payments to a company that he appears to control.

Mr. Bragman, a Democrat who represented a district in the Syracuse area for 21 years, offers an unusually vivid example of how New York’s campaign finance laws allow former candidates to keep spending contributions long after their campaigns end. And he is not alone.

A review of campaign expenditures at the State Board of Elections found other former officeholders whose unused campaign cash has been put to uses that their contributors probably never envisioned — and with little or no scrutiny from state regulators. While the officeholders are required to report all expenditures from their committees to the board, purchases can be listed only by general category and, when described, often without much detail. -- Retired Politicians Spend Unused Campaign Funds - New York Times

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The Centre Daily reports: State Sen. Jake Corman said Thursday that he will convene a joint hearing in three weeks on whether Pennsylvania should move up its 2008 presidential primary election to early February.

If such a move were to be made, the most likely date would be Feb. 5, the date that other big states -- California, Michigan, Illinois and Florida -- are considering for their 2008 primaries.

"I'm open to hearing more about it," Corman said in an interview Thursday. "I think there's some logistical problems, but it would be good for our economy to have that campaign in Pennsylvania. If it can be done, we should try it."

Corman, R-Benner Township, is Senate majority policy chairman, a Senate Republican leadership position. He asked his Democratic Party counterpart, state Sen. Richard A. Kasunic, of Fayette County, to make it a joint hearing. Kasunic aide Will Dando said that Kasunic agreed. -- Centre Daily Times | 02/23/2007 | Pennsylvania eyes moving up primary

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Scott Horton writes on Balkinization: Two Hundred Years Ago Today, the Global Campaign for Human Rights Achieved Its First Victory ... Today the cause of universal human rights celebrates an important anniversary. On this day two hundred years ago, the Parliament at Westminster voted an act for the abolition of the slave trade. A few decades later, Parliament also voted the manumission of slaves throughout the British Empire. By that time, in the 1830's, the trafficking in slaves was viewed as a jus cogens crime by legal scholars around the world and the global movement to abolish slavery altogether was well launched.

Charting the origins of the modern human rights movement is an exercise in an uncertain and problematic geography, but if we follow it back along its swiftest channels to its ultimate source, past the American Civil Rights movement, the cause of voting rights for women, the great American abolitionist movement of the first half of the nineteenth century, we inevitably come to William Wilberforce and his sisters and brethren who launched the effort to ban the slave trade. Of course there were the French and American Revolutions with their call for the rights of man; there was Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of social contract and Immanuel Kant's conceptualization of a philosophy of right. These things have their vital role. -- Balkinization

Wilberforce is remembered on 30 July each year in the Episcopal Church. On that day, the prayer is "Let your continual mercy, O Lord, enkindle in your Church the never-failing gift of love, that, following the example of your servant William Wilberforce, we may have grace to defend the children of the poor, and maintain the cause of those who have no helper; for the sake of him who gave his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever." Whether they are Christians or not, that is what civil rights lawyers do and should be doing: defending the children of the poor, and maintaining the cause of those who have no helper.

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The Chicago Tribine reports: Responding to his request for clarification, the Federal Election Commission signaled Thursday that Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign may be able to solicit private contributions for the 2008 general election while remaining eligible for public financing for that same contest.

The draft response was to a question Obama's campaign brought up this month when it indicated that it would start raising money for a potential general election candidacy, nearly a year before the first caucus and primary votes will be cast.

Obama (D-Ill.) and two of his top rivals for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), have indicated they would likely reject the public financing system that has governed presidential elections for more than three decades. ...

In its draft ruling, the commission said Obama may solicit and receive contributions for the general election if he meets certain conditions, including a requirement to keep the money in a separate escrow account and that the funds not be used for any other purpose other than general election activities. -- Obama's funding question to get FEC look | Chicago Tribune

Thanks to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for the link.

You may read the draft opinion here.

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AP reports: After an election season of automated calls and constituent complaints, senators voted Tuesday to restrict how politicians campaign.

The Senate by voice vote approved a bill that would expand the state's no-call list to include "robo-calls" from automatic dialing machines. The list, which is managed and enforced by the attorney general, also would be expanded to cover cell phone calls and text messages and faxes, along with traditional land-line telephone calls.

Sponsoring Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, said the bill expands protections for those who already have said they do not want to be called.

The bill would require a dialer to ask permission to play a recorded message and a declaration of who is paying for political solicitations. Those paying for the messages would also need to register with a state ethics commission or the Federal Election Commission. -- Senate approves bill restricting robo-calls

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The Hartford Courant reports: The Federal Election Commission is questioning whether Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and Democratic challenger Ned Lamont fully disclosed all their contributions during their U.S. Senate campaigns.

The FEC requests, contained in letters to each campaign, are considered routine. ...

The commission, though, wanted to know about two kinds of details it found lacking in his reports.

In one case, it found "one or more contributions that appear to exceed the limits." The letter advised the senator that any excess needed to be refunded or "redesignated" for another election.

Generally, no individual can give more than $2,100 per candidate per election during the 2006 cycle. -- courant.com | Lieberman, Lamont Questioned On Disclosure Of Contributions

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The Pilot reports: Former state Rep. Richard Morgan has dropped his suit against the State Board of Elections.

The suit had alleged that some of Morgan's political enemies violated state campaign finance laws.

Morgan's attorney, Mi-chael L. Weisel of Ra-leigh, filed the voluntary dismissal Jan. 31 in Wake County Superior Court.

The notice cites a pending decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of the Federal Election Commission vs. Wisconsin Right to Life that addresses issues similar to those raised in Morgan's suit.

Morgan, a former speaker of the state House of Represent-atives, first petitioned the State Board of Elections in April with a complaint against the Republican Legislative Majority (RLM), several political committees, Variety Wholesale Inc. and Variety Stores Inc., alleging that they illegally used corporate contributions in a campaign to defeat him and some of his political allies. -- ThePilot.com : Morgan Drops Suit With State

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Marketplace reports (audio report): A California Assembly committee today voted to move up next year's presidential primary from June to February. If approved, candidates' campaign costs will rise considerably. -- Marketplace: Golden State raises ante for 2008 campaign

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The Washington Post reports: It can't be easy being in Congress without a vote, but the District's delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, has stuck it out for 16 long years, never truly a part of the club but always relentlessly knocking on the door seeking admittance.

Now, Norton is sure, success is in her sights. With Democratic leaders pledging to get it done and ample Republican support, the bill giving both the District of Columbia and Utah an additional voting seat is cruising along. ...

The District's quest for voting rights and statehood has taken many roads for decades. Twenty years ago, legal experts believed only a constitutional amendment could give the city voting rights. But ultimately, only 16 of the 38 states needed voted to ratify the amendment. Most contemporary legal thinking, including an endorsement by the American Bar Association last year, declares the bill constitutionally sound.

Norton's bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), must clear two committees before it is brought for a floor vote. Norton is hoping that will happen in March. Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Pelosi is committed to finalizing the bill's language, moving it through committees and having a floor vote as soon as possible. -- Lois Romano - For Norton and the City, the Wait May Be Over - washingtonpost.com

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The Decatur Daily reports: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address next month at the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee that commemorates the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, organizers said Tuesday.

Obama, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois who is black, is scheduled to speak at a March 4 service at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, the site in Selma where marchers gathered in the historic protest that gave blacks across the South greater access to the ballot.

Several dozen other members of Congress plan to attend, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said Sam Walker, an event coordinator with the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, which sponsors the commemoration. -- Obama to headline voting rights march commemoration in Selma

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Marc Fisher writes in the Washington Post: Just as D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty cheered voting rights advocates with a new effort to lobby Congress for the right that all other Americans take for granted, and just as congressional Democrats were gearing up to show that they intend to be more aggressive on D.C. voting rights than the Republican leadership had been, along comes the Congressional Research Service with a whole new barrier.

The non-partisan Research Service concluded that giving D.C. residents a full, voting seat in the House of Representatives is probably unconstitutional. Suddenly, the air seemed to escape from the voting rights balloon.

Now, D.C. voting rights advocates are scrambling to reassert Congress's authority to create a House seat for the District. On the theory that the Democrats have more to gain from a D.C. seat than the Republicans, the new lobbying effort is aimed at persuading Republicans that this is not only the right thing to do, but a legally well-founded path as well. And who better to make that case than two solid citizens of the right, conservative legal scholars Kenneth Starr, the former Clinton impeachment case special prosecutor, and Viet Dinh, the Georgetown law professor and former Justice Department official.

Starr notes that the Constitution is silent on the matter of whether D.C. residents may vote. In the Founders' era, there was no expectation that people would live in the capital, which was then little more than an idea surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. But Starr says despite that silence, Congress has the authority to adapt to the fact that a full-fledged city grew up here; the Constitution expressly says that "The Congress shall have power ... to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever" over the District of Columbia. -- The Conservative Case for D.C. Voting Rights - Raw Fisher

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AP reports: A borough councilman serving in Afghanistan was denied a request to participate in meetings by phone, drawing protests from veterans.

Tullytown Councilman Joseph Shellenberger, a master sergeant in the Air Force, was sent to Afghanistan in January and is expected to return home in about two months. He asked before leaving to be allowed to phone in his votes during meetings. -- www.centredaily.com | 02/21/2007 | Councilman denied request to vote from Afghanistan

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The New York Times reports: The United States Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to review New York’s method of selecting candidates to its own Supreme Courts — the 324 judges who have general trial jurisdiction throughout the state and whose nomination to 14-year terms is tightly controlled by a political process that two lower federal courts declared unconstitutional last year.

The lower court rulings, which were stayed until after the 2006 election cycle, have created turmoil in the state’s judicial politics and spurred calls for fundamental change in a system that dates to 1921. The political parties control the nominating conventions, and candidates who are not favored by the parties’ leaders have no chance of getting on the ballot. The actual elections are for the most part uncontested.

From 1994 to 2002, these nominating conventions in the state’s 12 judicial departments chose 568 State Supreme Court candidates, none of whom were challengers to the party favorites. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a ruling last August affirming a decision issued five months earlier by Judge John Gleeson of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, ruled that the system was so exclusionary as to violate the First Amendment right of the state’s voters to freedom of political association.

“The First Amendment guarantees voters and candidates a realistic opportunity to participate in the nominating phase free from severe and unnecessary burdens,” Judge Chester J. Straub wrote for a three-judge panel of the appeals court. He added that the United States Supreme Court’s election-law precedents “establish that the First Amendment prohibits a state from maintaining an electoral scheme that in practice excludes candidates, and thus voters, from participating in the electoral process.” -- Supreme Court Will Review the Way New York Selects Judicial Candidates - New York Times

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The New York Times reports: States that imposed identification requirements on voters reduced turnout at the polls in the 2004 presidential election by about 3 percent, and by two to three times as much for minorities, new research suggests.

The study, prepared by scholars at Rutgers and Ohio State Universities for the federal Election Assistance Commission, supports concerns among voting-rights advocates that blacks and Hispanics could be disproportionately affected by ID requirements. But federal officials say more research is needed to draw firmer conclusions about the effects on future elections.

Tim Vercellotti, a professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University who helped conduct the study, said that in the states where voters were required to sign their names or present identifying documents like utility bills, blacks were 5.7 percent less likely to vote than in states where voters simply had to say their names.

Dr. Vercellotti said Hispanics appeared to be 10 percent less likely to vote under those requirements, while the combined rate for people of all races was 2.7 percent. -- Lower Voter Turnout Is Seen in States That Require ID - New York Times

Thanks to TChris at TalkLeft.com for the link.

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Gerry Hebert writes on the Campaign Legal Center Blog: A number of Federal Election Commissioners will face confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary this year, but one of them deserves particular attention. The politically-expedited career of Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky, both as a recess appointee to the FEC and previously as an attorney at the Department of Justice, warrants careful scrutiny by the Committee. The record that has already developed about von Spakovsky is a disturbing one for an individual charged with enforcing the nation’s election laws. ...

The evidence that has become public since [the decision to preclear the Texas redistricting in 2003] demonstrates that the decision to overrule the career professionals was made purely based on politics by a number of political appointees in the Department of Justice, including Hans von Spakovsky—who President Bush later rewarded with a recess appointment to the Federal Election Commission. ...

DOJ lawyers, many of whom have now left the Department, have informally told me that von Spakovsky played a central role in the decision to approve the Texas plan. This was confirmed in a recently published book on the Texas redistricting case entitled “Lines in Sand: Congressional Redistricting in Texas and the Downfall of Tom DeLay by Steve Bickerstaff. Bickerstaff writes:

“The political appointees at Justice controlled how the department would handle the decisions surrounding Texas redistricting, and none of them with any ambition to remain active in this Republican administration or in the Republican Party could dare allow any departmental action to delay or to block it. Loyal service would be rewarded. Hans von Spakovsky, who led the battle within Civil Rights Division to approve the Texas redistricting in 2003, was appointed by President Bush to the Federal Election commission in 2006. The appointment was an interim appointment not requiring U.S. Senate confirmation.” -- Campaign Legal Center blog: "So exactly where were you, Hans von Spakovsky, on the nights in question"�

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The Washington Post reports: Efforts are intensifying in Congress to pass legislation that would require electronic touch-screen voting machines used in federal elections to provide paper trails that could be checked in the case of a recount.

The new momentum is the result of lingering concerns about the machines as the 2008 presidential primaries fast approach, as well as strong support for changes by the new Democratic majority, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the Rules Committee, taking a leading role. ...

The work at the national level echoes moves in many states. Often under pressure from voting-rights groups, 27 states have decided to require paper trails.

Last month, Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida went a step further, asking the legislature to pay for replacing touch-screen machines by next year with optical-scan devices, which read paper ballots. Virginia and Maryland are considering similar moves. -- Campaign Strengthens For a Voting Paper Trail - washingtonpost.com

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The Washington Post reports: Advocates seeking to expand the voting rights of convicted felons in Maryland are stepping up their efforts this year, hoping that the election of Gov. Martin O'Malley will help move bills that stalled in past years.

Leaders from the 2nd Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church met with O'Malley (D) yesterday morning to encourage him to support legislation that, in varying degrees, would restore the voting rights of former offenders.

In Maryland, a first-time offender is able to vote after completing a sentence, including any probation or parole. People convicted of two or more felonies must wait three years before they can vote.

A House bill would allow first-time offenders to vote after they are released from prison. A Senate bill would remove the waiting period for second-time offenders. -- Advocates Urge O'Malley to Back Restored Rights - washingtonpost.com

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The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports: A federal lawsuit contending that elections in about 100 Texas counties could be flawed originated in Madison County, where last year's race for county judge is still being disputed in state court.

The suit, filed in Austin on Tuesday by the Texas Democratic Party, suggests a glitch in Hart InterCivic's popular eSlate voting machine - which is used by Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Madison and 98 other Texas counties. ...

According to Democratic Party officials, the problem with the Hart InterCivic machines is their method for counting "emphasis" votes. For decades, Texas law has allowed people to vote a straight ticket - meaning all Republican or Democratic candidates - by marking one box at the top of the ballot. ...

"The Texas rules uniformly provided that by making these 'emphasizing' selections, the voter will not be disenfranchised in those races. The voters' intent is clear. They not only voted a straight ticket, but they 'made sure' their vote counted."

But printouts from the Madison County race indicate that when people tried to emphasize their votes there, the eSlate machines interpreted it to mean they were canceling the individual votes, both lawsuits state. For instance, a straight-ticket Democratic voter who lodged an emphasis vote for Bullard would have ended up voting for all the Democrats on the ballot except Bullard, Wood said. -- Democrats: Voting glitch intolerable | The Bryan-College Station Eagle

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The Tulsa World reports: A private watchdog group said Friday it has filed an official complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the 2004 campaign of U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., citing "violations" outlined in a previous FEC audit.

Tim Mooney, senior counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called the violations "egregious" and expressed hope the FEC would fine Coburn's campaign.

By filing an official complaint, Mooney said his group would be forcing the hand of the FEC, which already has the authority to launch its own investigation. ...

Released in late January, the FEC audit found that Coburn's campaign accepted contributions that exceeded the legal limit, did not include information on certain contributors as required by law and failed to file proper paperwork on donations totaling $349,100. -- tulsaworld.com: News

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Salon.com has a chapter from "Take This Bread" by Sara Miles. This is the editor's note that introduces the chapter: At 46, Sara Miles, a left-wing, secular journalist and former cook, found herself an unlikely convert to Christianity. She joined St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in San Francisco, where she turned the bread she ate at Communion into groceries for a food bank that now feeds over 450 people a week. The following excerpt is from her memoir about what she calls her "unexpected and terribly inconvenient" spiritual awakening -- "Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion."

This explanation/meditation/I-don't-know-what on the Eucharist literally (and I do mean "literally" in the correct way) took my breath away -- I doubled over as the breath expelled from me. I hope it affects you the same way: All that grounded me were those pieces of bread. I was feeling my way toward a theology, beginning with what I had taken in my mouth and working out from there. I couldn't start by conceptualizing God as an abstract "Trinity" or trying to "prove" a divine existence philosophically. It was the materiality of Christianity that fascinated me, the compelling story of incarnation in its grungiest details, the promise that words and flesh were deeply, deeply connected. I reflected, for example, about [my daughter] Katie, and about what it was like to be both a mother and a mother's child. The entire process of human reproduction was, if I considered it for a minute, about as "intolerable" as the apostles said communion was. It sounded just as weird as the claim that God was in a piece of bread you could eat. And yet it was true.

I grew inside my mother, the way Katie grew inside me. I came out of her and ate her, just as Katie ate my body, literally, to live. I became my mother in ways that still felt, sometimes, as elemental and violent as the moment when I'd been pushed out from between her legs in a great rush of blood. And it was the same with my father: He had helped make me, in ways that were wildly mysterious and absolutely powerful. Like Jesus, he had gone inside somebody else's body and then become a part of me. The shape of my hands, the way I cleared my throat, the color of my eyes: My parents lived in me -- body and soul, DNA and spirit. That was like the bread becoming God becoming me, in ways seen and unseen. -- My daily bread | Salon Life

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Public Citizen Litigation Group emails: Public Citizen Litigation Group has just created a new S.Ct. Watch listserv to send out more widely our updates on pending cert. petitions of public interest, including some cases we're working on (the current watch list is available here.). An example email about tomorrow's conference is below -- from now on, we'll be sending this out before each S.Ct. conference.

Would you like to join? If so, please click this link to sign up directly.

ALAN MORRISON SUPREME COURT ASSISTANCE PROJECT UPDATE

Welcome to the new Supreme Court Watch listserv. Public Citizen has created this listserv to raise awareness of public interest issues presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before each S.Ct. conference, we'll send this list an update on pending Cert. Petitions of Public Interest. (For those who've received these emails before, note that the watch list is no longer an attachment so you'll need to click on the below link to view the full watch list).

Feel free to forward this message to friends or colleagues who may wish to sign up here: http://www.citizen.org/supremecourtsignup.

The Supreme Court Watch List for the Feb. 16th conference is available as a PDF here: http://www.citizen.org/documents/SCAPpetitionsMonitored.pdf.

PUBLIC CITIZEN CASE HIGHLIGHTS

* Public Citizen is co-counsel for respondents in three pending cert. petitions:

- 06-492, Curry County v. Robert Dark, 9th Cir. (ADA discriminatory discharge and reasonable accommodation - Brian Wolfman is co-counsel for respondent).
- 06-580, Board of Education v. Hyde Park Cent. Sch. Dist. v. Frank G., et al., 2d Cir. (IDEA private tuition reimbursement for parents where child was never enrolled in public school - Bonnie Robin-Vergeer is co-counsel for respondents).
- 06-763, Illinois Central RR Co. v. Milton McDaniel, Miss. (FELA release of injury claim - Allison Zieve is co-counsel for respondent).

* Public Citizen has two petitions previously held which were re-listed for this conference:

- 05-107, Davis v. Int'l Union, UAAAIWA, 6th Cir. (federal jurisdiction - removal/remand/preemption - Paul Levy represents petitioner).
- 05-816, Clark v. Colorado Dep't of Corrections, 10th Cir. (Prison Litigation Reform Act/total exhaustion - Brian Wolfman is co-counsel with Amanda Frost on this petition).

* Public Citizen is assisting with one other case at this conference:
- 06-589 Christian Civil League of Maine, Inc. v. FEC & McCain et al., D.D.C. (electioneering/lobbying ad ban - Scott Nelson is assisting congresssional appellees).

Last Conference
* The Court agreed to hear:
- 06-969/06-970 Federal Election Commission, Senators McCain et al. v. Wisconsin, D.D.C. (electioneering ban on grassroots lobbying ads - Scott Nelson is co-counsel for McCain et al. appellants).

* The Court denied cert. on:
- 06-746 Hyundai Motor v. Razor, Ill. (no Magnuson Moss or FTC preemption of state warranty requirement - Brian Wolfman assisted respondent.)
- 06-528, Lundeen v. Canadian Pacific Railway Co., 8th Cir. (Federal Railroad Safety Act preemption of state-law tort claims from N.D. railroad accident - Paul Levy represented petitioners).

For more info, contact: Emma Cheuse, echeuse@citizen.org
Alan Morrison Supreme Court Assistance Project
http://www.citizen.org/supremecourt
Public Citizen Litigation Group
(202) 588-7727

Posted by Ed at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Fayette Observer reports: Former state House Speaker Jim Black admitted in federal court Thursday that he took cash payments in secret meetings with chiropractors, contradicting months of denials that he had committed wrongdoing.

Black, 71, pleaded guilty to a single felony count of receiving personal payments while working as an official for a state that receives federal funds. He was released from court pending sentencing in about 90 days. He faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge James Dever III read much of the government’s charge, including details about cash payments from chiropractors and favorable legislation that helped the chiropractic industry. ...

The charge says that between 2000 and 2002, Black told two chiropractors that “cash payments would be more helpful than campaign contributions made by check.” Those two recruited a third chiropractor who also made cash payments. -- FayObserver.com - Current Article Page

Posted by Ed at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports: Senators approved a bill late Thursday that would require all first-time voters to show photo identification to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote.

However, Democrats said the bill amounted to a "poll tax" because residents would be required to produce a copy of their birth certificate, passport or proof of citizenship to register. A birth certificate costs $12 in Kansas, while a passport is $97.

"This is the 21st century version of the poll tax," said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka. "I frankly don't know what problem we're trying to fix."

The Senate's 28-12 vote sends the bill to the House.

Republicans supporting the bill said it was a necessary measure to protect the integrity of the election process, noting that residents are required to show identification to cash a check, purchase cigarettes or buy alcohol. -- AP Wire | 02/15/2007 | Senate passes election ID bill over claims of 'poll tax'

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Nunatsiaq News reports: When residents of Nunavut and Nunavik next head to the polls to cast ballots in a federal election, they will have to produce photo identification.

That’s a change brought in by Bill C-31, An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act and the Public Service Employment Act, which passed in the House of Commons on Feb. 6.

Only members of the NDP caucus voted against the bill.

If residents don’t have photo ID, they will still be able to vote if they swear an oath, and have another resident, with photo ID, vouch for them as well.

Dennis Bevington, MP for the Western Arctic, warned in a press release that the bill may discourage residents across Canada’s North, who often don’t possess photo ID, from voting. -- Nunatsiaq News

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The Journal News reports: The federal government sued Port Chester in December, alleging that the election system violates the federal Voting Rights Act. It is asking U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson to replace the "at-large" system with one in which the six village trustees are elected from different districts, including at least one majority Hispanic district.

It is also asking Robinson to stop the March 20 village election for two trustee seats until a district system is in place.

Two government expert witnesses testified yesterday, contending that the village's election system discriminates against Latinos and prevents them from electing their candidate of choice.

"I believe that the at-large system in Port Chester of electing trustees is diluting the minority vote," said Lisa Handley, an expert in voter data analysis and voting patterns among Hispanics.

Robert Courtney Smith, a college professor and an expert in discrimination against Hispanics, said Solomon's statement, along with some 35 speakers at the hearings and a handful of hecklers, point to a pattern of racial polarization in the village. -- Racial polarization in Port Chester cited in federal lawsuit

Posted by Ed at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Casper Star-Tribune reports: Single-member commissioner districts would benefit Fremont County like the ward system benefits the elections of city council members in Riverton, the city's mayor said Thursday in federal court in Casper.

"The system works for city government," John Vincent said during testimony as the last witness in the ninth and final day of a voting rights bench trial before U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson. -- Riverton mayor favors single-member districts for Fremont County

AP reports on the opening witness for the defense: More harm than good would be done to American Indian-white relations by having Fremont County's five commissioners each represent a district, one of those commissioners said during a trial challenging the county's at-large system of electing commissioners.

"I'm worried this lawsuit will take us back 10 years in Fremont County in race relations," Commissioner Keja Whiteman, who is Indian, said Wednesday.

Five members of the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes on the Wind River Reservation, which covers a large part of Fremont County, filed the lawsuit. They say the at-large system causes discrimination by diluting Indian voting strength.

They want the U.S. District Court to require the county to have districts. One of those districts would be the reservation land. -- Indian commissioner testifies against suit

Posted by Ed at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Election Day Registration Continues its Winning Streak in 2006
In Voters Win with Election Day Registration, Demos finds that Election Day Registration (EDR) was widely successful in the 2006 midterm election. EDR states continue to boast turnout rates 10 to 12 percentage points higher than states that do not offer EDR. Montana, the most recent state to adopt Election Day Registration, saw 4,000 state residents register and vote with EDR last November.
> Click here to download report

New Voting Machines Do Not Accommodate Voters with Disabilities
Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, once considered essential to ensuring private and independent voting for voters with disabilities, often do not work as promised. Improving Access to Voting: A Report on the Technology for Accessible Voting Systems -- authored by Noel Runyan, an electrical engineer and access technology expert, and published by Demos and Voter Action -- shows that the DREs purchased by states to comply with the Help America Vote Act fail to meet federal standards. The report recommends that election administrators instead adopt blended systems, such as a combination of optical scan ballots, ballot marking devices with appropriate accessibility features, and multilingual paper ballots.
> Click here to download report

Posted by Ed at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Washington Post reports: Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has continued to make paid speeches at a standard fee of $100,000 since forming his presidential exploratory committee last November, mixing personal business with campaigning in a way many of his rivals in the race cannot.

Presidential candidates who are not federal officeholders are allowed to take money for speeches, as long as they are not raising campaign money at the event, distributing campaign material or delivering an overtly political speech. ...

Past speechmaking by presidential candidates has attracted the attention of election regulators. In 2003, Democrat Wesley K. Clark returned money for motivational speeches after published reports questioned whether the payments amounted to improper campaign contributions.

Clark said yesterday that he believed his speech fees were legal but ultimately gave them back to avoid giving opponents an issue, and that he worries that putting such fees off limits only hurts candidates who are not wealthy or members of Congress. -- Giuliani to Seek Advice From FEC About Speaking Fees - washingtonpost.com

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The Birmingham News and CQPolitics.com have stories on Alabama's presidential primary date. First the Birmingham News: Tentative plans to move Alabama's party primaries to Feb. 2 next year are being reconsidered in light of national party rules discouraging most states from setting them earlier than Feb. 5. ...

The Alabama Legislature had settled on a Feb. 5 primary - a full four months earlier than during the 2004 elections - to try to make the state more relevant in picking the nominees for president. But Feb. 5 started to look unattractive because of the conflict with Mardi Gras and the rush of other states to pick the same date, so party leaders in Alabama recently decided Feb. 2 was a better option. They planned to make the change when the Alabama Legislature went into session in March.

But the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee have rules against most states holding their nominating contests earlier than Feb. 5. To discourage it, the national party organizations say states could lose a portion of their delegate seats at the national nominating conventions, and Democrats additionally could sanction candidates who campaign in states that break the timing rule. -- Plan for early voting may not work

CQPolitics reports: Alabama officials are considering a measure that would move the state’s 2008 presidential primary from its currently scheduled date of Tuesday, Feb. 5 to Saturday, Feb. 2.

This move, if executed, could give the state some stand-alone prominence in the wide-open contests for the major parties’ presidential nominations. But it also would run afoul of