PUBLICATIONS BY Hans A. von Spakovsky
Commentary
Research
2009 Commentary
November 20, 2009
Criminalizing Health-Care Freedom: Obamacare Supporters Would Use the Brute Force of Criminal Law for Social Engineering
By Brian Walsh and Hans A. von Spakovsky
The "reformers" in the White House and the House of Representatives have made all too plain their vision of the federal government's power to coerce individual Americans to make the "right" health-care choices. The highly partisan bill the House just passed includes severe penalties for individuals who do not purchase insurance approved by the federal government.
November 09, 2009
Painting the Gulag: A Haunting Reminder of Soviet Atrocities, Courtesy of Nikolai Getman
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
My Russian father and German mother, who survived some of the worst wars and atrocities of the last century, came close to death many times. But I recently experienced a visual reminder of just how lucky they were, despite the many hardships they endured.
October 20, 2009
The Power of the Plaintiffs' Bar: Why Democrats are avoiding medical-malpractice reform at all costs
By Edwin J. Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
The health-care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved makes a lot of promises. It will cost American taxpayers $829 billion, on top of an already out-of-control federal budget, as well as guarantee an increase in their individual medical expenditures.
October 08, 2009
Disenfranchised by Dave
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Why does New York's Gov. David Paterson keep disenfranchising military voters? The answer is obvious -- and ugly.
October 01, 2009
Panetta Right to Defend CIA Interrogators
By Edwin J. Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
Score one for the case officers targeted by President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder's reinvestigation of interrogators that the Department of Justice previously decided shouldn't be prosecuted. CIA Director Leon Panetta says he will use agency funds to pay for their legal defense.
September 29, 2009
The Politics of (In)Justice
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Obama's patronizing Civil Rights Division. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may not look like a political weapon. But in the hands of certain government lawyers, that's exactly what it has become.
July 17, 2009
What You Don't Know About Sotomayor and 'Ricci'
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The Republican senators questioning Sonia Sotomayor about her decision in the Ricci v. New Haven case have done a fair job detailing the legal issues. But no one has gone into the details of what really happened in that case, or the fact that by ruling as she did, Sotomayor attempted to create a new rule that would have given carte blanche to local governments and other employers to resort to the worst kinds of invidious discrimination for base political reasons.
July 16, 2009
Citizens United for Free Speech
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The Supreme Court did something very unusual and extremely rare on the last day of its term, June 29. It did not issue a decision in an important case involving the right to engage in political speech -- a right steadily diminished by campaign "reform" laws, including the McCain-Feingold law of 2002, the modern-day Alien and Sedition Acts.
July 16, 2009
Sotomayor and the Sordid Business of Race
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The Republican senators questioning Sonia Sotomayor about her decision in the Ricci v. New Haven case have done a fair job detailing the legal issues. But no one has gone into the details of what really happened in that case, or the fact that by ruling as she did, Sotomayor attempted to create a new rule that would have given carte blanche to local governments and other employers to resort to the worst kinds of invidious discrimination for base political reasons.
July 14, 2009
Conservatives Right to Oppose Section 5 of Civil Rights Act
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
In a recent New York Times column, Ramesh Ponnuru criticized conservatives for "deep inconsistency" in their arguments on two race-related Supreme Court cases. Conservatives had urged the court to find Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional and to declare unlawful the New Haven city government's racially discriminatory treatment of its firefighters.
June 30, 2009
Court Leaves Intrusive Voting Rights Rule at Risk
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Just as the Allied invasion of North Africa was a preliminary battle to the main fight in Europe, so the Supreme Court's decision last week in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder was just a skirmish in the coming war over the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
June 23, 2009
What Is Obama Trying to Cover Up?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Saying one thing on the campaign trail and doing another after taking office is nothing new. President Obama has done it repeatedly.
June 09, 2009
Holder Winks at Voter Intimidation
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
When Eric Holder became U.S. attorney general, he promised to administer the law in an objective, nonpolitical manner. So it's disappointing that the Justice Department had spent the last several months misinterpreting key voting rights laws for nakedly political reasons.
May 18, 2009
Let U.S. move on from Jim Crow
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
On April 29, Justice Department lawyers told the Supreme Court that the South is still so permeated with racism that it cannot be trusted to run its elections without prior approval - from Justice Department lawyers.
May 12, 2009
The Minnesota Senate Race: The Saga Continues
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
On June 1, the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear argument on the closest U.S. Senate race in the states history. Republican Norm Coleman is appealing the decision of a three-judge trial court that declared Al Franken the winner--by a margin of 312 votes out of 3 million cast. Earlier, the Minnesota Canvassing Board had given Franken a win by only 225 votes. The election night count had Coleman the winner by 215 votes.
April 30, 2009
SCOTUS Showdown: The Voting Rights Act-Will the justices let America move on from the Jim Crow era?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Today, in Washington, Justice Department lawyers will tell the Supreme Court that the South is still so permeated with racism that it cannot be trusted to run its elections without prior approval - from Justice Department lawyers. On those dubious grounds, they will urge the Court to uphold Section 5 of the LBJ-era Voting Rights Act - a "temporary/emergency" provision that is now 44 years old.
April 06, 2009
Should taxpayers subsidize pols?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Sen. Richard J. Durbin's (D-Ill.) Fair Elections Now Act, introduced on Tuesday, purports to "reform" our political system by using public funds (tax dollars) to finance congressional campaigns. According to Durbin, it will "restore this democracy to its basic values." Odd, as I don't recall the Founding Fathers asserting a basic, democratic value of forcing taxpayers to fund political speech with which they disagree.
March 31, 2009
The Tragedy of Supremely Bad Law
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The press hailed it as a victory for patients. People harmed by drugs can sue the manufacturers, the Supreme Court recently ruled, even when the firms have scrupulously complied with all FDA rules.
March 27, 2009
Misplaced Anger on AIG: Yet another example of why Congress should not be running American businesses.
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The proposed AIG bill, which would confiscate the bonuses and compensation of company employees, offers yet another example of why Congress should not be running American businesses. It also illustrates that many U.S. lawmakers lack a basic understanding of the way our economy works, how businesses sell their goods and services to make a profit, and how individuals make decisions about their own careers.
March 17, 2009
A Leadership of Cowards?: Why is Eric Holder embarrassed about enforcing civil rights in Noxubee County?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Attorney General Eric Holder calls the U.S. "a nation of cowards" because we "do not talk enough about race." I find this ironic, since the Justice Department seems embarrassed about a recent judgment in its favor by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. U.S. v. Ike Brown is a major Voting Rights Act case involving intentional race-based discrimination by local officials in Noxubee County, Miss.
March 04, 2009
Leahy's un-American activities commission
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
For more than 200 years, the reins of America’s leadership have been peacefully handed over from one administration to another, regardless of party affiliation, in part because we have never seriously indulged in criminalizing our political differences.
February 24, 2009
Violating Their Sacred Honor: How the D.C.-Utah House Voting Rights Act violates the Constitution
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
When the D.C. voting-rights bill comes up for a cloture vote in the Senate this Tuesday, senators will face one overriding question: Will they uphold their oaths to support and defend the Constitution? If they give the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress, they will break those oaths.
January 31, 2009
Voter ID Was a Success in November: Turnout was higher in states that took a simple step to prevent fraud
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Remember the storm that arose on the political left after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter ID law last April? According to the left, voter ID was a dastardly Republican plot to prevent Democrats from winning elections by suppressing the votes of minorities, particularly African-Americans.
January 24, 2009
Revenge of the Liberal Bureaucrats: A new report on Bush administration hiring practices at Justice
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, himself a political appointee in the Clinton administration, has released his report on the supposed "illegal" political hiring at the Civil Rights Division of George W. Bush's Department of Justice. [Full disclosure: I served four years as a career lawyer in CRD during the Bush era -- apparently to little notice since the report barely mentions me in passing.] Fine issued the report just days before Attorney General nominee Eric Holder's confirmation hearing. That timing seemed aimed at providing maximum political benefit to Fine's fellow Democrats.
January 11, 2009
Will S.C. House keep elections legal?
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
The results of the Minnesota Senate recount are still in doubt two months after the election because of questionable decisions being made by the Minnesota Canvassing Board. But South Carolinians need not look beyond their borders for such political high drama. The Palmetto State boasts its own electoral soap opera, complete with inaccurate voter registrations and a state election commission that refuses to enforce the law.
2008 Commentary
December 29, 2008
A Christmas Tale -- 1919
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
It's easy to complain in the midst of a stressful holiday season. But my family has a unique remedy: We remember one special Christmas in 1919 that gave us the freedom and liberty we enjoy today. This will be the 89th anniversary of the year my father celebrated Christmas Eve deep in the snow-laden woods of Russia as he fled the Communist takeover of his homeland.
November 18, 2008
Ensuring That Only Citizens Vote
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
A report on FOX affiliate WFLD-TV in Chicago that aired just before the election showed how easy it is for non-citizens to register: They used a hidden camera in a DMV office to show a Chinese citizen illegally registering to vote as she obtained a driver’s license.
November 05, 2008
Will This Election Be Stolen?
By Hans A. Von Spakovsky
In 1742, riots broke out in Philadelphia on Election Day over claims that German immigrants were being used to illegally increase vote totals. George Washington won a race for the Virginia House of Burgesses after buying gallons of liquor for voters; by contrast, James Madison refused to engage in this common practice and lost his election.
October 22, 2008
Help ACORN Mess with Votes Act
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
In 2002, the federal government enacted the Help America Vote Act. The law, designed to prevent election fraud, set standards for voter eligibility, and its importance is obvious given the recent ACORN vote-fraud scandal. But thanks to a Supreme Court order issued Friday, Ohio’s Democratic secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, doesn’t have to follow it.
September 16, 2008
Voting Greene: Criminal politics
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
Almost everyone expects that this year’s elections will be close, but few realize that the margin of victory could be affected by fraudulently cast absentee ballots. With increasing numbers of voters casting ballots by mail, the threat of fraud is real and growing. It’s important that voters understand the risk and why this problem has gone under the radar for so long. The short answer: Blame crooked candidates aided and abetted by left-wing civil-rights groups that have lost their way.
2009 Research
October 06, 2009
Another Sarbanes-Oxley: Threatening Small Businesses with the "Beneficial" Ownership Bill
By Hans A. von Spakovsky and Andrew M. Grossman
(Legal Memorandum #48)
The Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act (ITLEAA)--currently under consideration in Congress--would subject small businesses to a series of complicated and burdensome reporting requirements. These new requirements are reminiscent to those imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley, and would have similarly negative consequences: increased costs and reductions in business activity and job creation. Furthermore, the ITLEAA would do little to actually reduce the use of LLC forms for criminal activity--the purported goal of the legislation.
September 25, 2009
Defunding ACORN: Necessary and Proper, and Certainly Constitutional
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(WebMemo #2630)
Barring ACORN from receiving federal funds through the Defund ACORN Act is perfectly constitutional.
September 02, 2009
Defending Those Who Serve: Paying the Legal Costs of CIA Officers
By Edwin Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
(WebMemo #2602)
CIA Director Leon Panetta's decision to use agency funds to pay for the legal defense of case officers targeted by President Obama and Attorney General Holder is not only legal under the CIA’s authorizing statute, but it is the correct position to take from a moral, public policy, and national security point of view.
August 28, 2009
The Trial Lawyers' Earmark: Using Medicare to Finance the Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous
By Edwin Meese III and Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #47)
A proposed amendment to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 would have generated abusive Medicare litigation on a massive scale to benefit plaintiffs' lawyers at the expense of the American taxpayer and Medicare beneficiaries. It is bad public policy that would increase health care costs and endanger the health and privacy of Medicare beneficiaries, and it should not be revived in the Senate or in committee.
August 11, 2009
Democracy in Danger: What States Can Do to Safeguard America's Election System
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Heritage Lecture #1129)
In order to have an election process in which we can be confident that everyone who is eligible gets to vote, the vote is counted, and the vote is not diluted by fraudulent votes, we have to have security and integrity throughout the entire process, from voter registration to the casting of the actual votes and the counting of ballots. Unfortunately, because of various problems with election laws and procedures in many states, we cannot currently ensure that such security is in place. State legislators can take several steps to safeguard America's election system and to improve the integrity of the election process.
August 04, 2009
Killing Americans by Stifling Medical Innovation: The Medical Device "Safety" Act of 2009
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #46)
The misnamed Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 would gut the carefully crafted regulation of medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration, exposing developers to the conflicting laws and regulations of 50 different states and subjecting them to abusive and punitive tort litigation.
July 28, 2009
America's Military Voters: Re-enfranchising the Disenfranchised
By Hans A. von Spakovsky and M. Eric Eversole
(Legal Memorandum #45)
In recent elections, only 5 to 20 percent of eligible military voters cast absentee ballots that were counted. This shockingly low participation rate is as severe as any in our nation's history, including that which resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to strike down barriers to voting for black Americans.
July 02, 2009
Correcting False Claims about the New False Claims Act Legislation
By Hans A. von Spakovsky and Brian W. Walsh
(Legal Memorandum #42)
Congress's latest amendments to the federal False Claims Act destroy the FCA's prior balance that protected federal taxpayer funds while providing some restraints against abusive and profiteering litigation. This enriches individual plaintiffs and trial lawyers at the expense of the American taxpayer.
March 23, 2009
Requiring Identification by Voters
By Hans A. Von Spakovsky
(Testimony #9999)
Guaranteeing the integrity of elections requires having security throughout the entire election process, from voter registration to the casting of votes to the counting of ballots at the end of the day when the polls have closed.
March 20, 2009
Cracking the Bedrock of Democracy: Destroying the Secret Ballot in Union Elections
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #38)
The Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 would fundamentally change the nature of the relationship between unions, employers, and employees. The only reason to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections is to give union leaders and managers the power to manipulate individual workers to guarantee the success of the union and not to reflect the true choices of the employees.
January 30, 2009
Ensuring "Equal Treatment" in the Minnesota Recount: Bush v. Gore Redux
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #36)
The carelessness of local election officials, the arbitrary and capricious decisions of the Minnesota Canvassing Board, and the strange decisions of the Minnesota Supreme Court likely have caused the state to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the inappropriate departure from the state's legislative structure may be a violation of the Elections Clause of Article I of the Constitution.
January 07, 2009
The Constitutional Requirement to Seat the Senator from Illinois: Upholding the Rule of Law
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(WebMemo #2190)
Senator Roland Burris has no choice but to immediately assert his right to be seated and to file suit if the Senate continues to unlawfully refuse to seat him. Preservation of the rule of law and of the Constitution requires no less.
January 06, 2009
Promoting the General Welfare Through Civil Justice Reform
By Hans A. von Spakovsky and Andrew M. Grossman
(Special Report #38)
President-elect Obama, you argued forcefully as a candidate that we need a regulatory and business landscape in which businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors can thrive and consumers are protected. You vowed to take action to make America's civil justice system work for all Americans.
2008 Research
October 28, 2008
Democracy in Danger: Case Studies of Election Fraud
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Special Report #24)
The right to vote in a free and fair election is the most basic civil right, on which depends all of the other rights of the American people protected by the Bill of Rights. As the Supreme Court noted in 2008, however, flagrant examples of voter fraud "have been documented throughout this Nation's history by respected historians and journalists." Those examples "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election."
September 05, 2008
Absentee Ballot Fraud: A Stolen Election in Greene County, Alabama
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #31)
The 1994 Greene County, Alabama, election fraud case shows how easily crooked politicians can abuse absentee ballots to disenfranchise voters. Because the risk of fraud is so high, absentee ballots should be available only to those who truly need them. Additional common-sense steps like signature matching and ID requirements also reduce the risk of stolen elections.
September 05, 2008
Executive Summary: Absentee Ballot Fraud: A Stolen Election in Greene County, Alabama
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Executive Summary #31)
Executive Summary: The 1994 Greene County, Alabama, election fraud case shows how easily crooked politicians can abuse absentee ballots to disenfranchise voters. Because the risk of fraud is so high, absentee ballots should be available only to those who truly need them. Additional common-sense steps like signature matching and ID requirements also reduce the risk of stolen elections.
July 10, 2008
The Threat of Non-Citizen Voting
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #28)
Americans disagree on many areas of immigration policy, but not on the basic principle that only citizens should be able to vote in elections. To keep non-citizens from diluting citizens’ votes, immigration and election officials must cooperate far more effectively, and state and federal officials must increase their efforts to enforce the laws against non-citizen voting that are already on the books.
April 16, 2008
Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: 100,000 Stolen Votes in Chicago
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #23)
Chicago’s decades-long voting-fraud experience involved techniques that have come to light in recent elections in Philadelphia, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, among other locations, and point toward viable solutions to the problem: careful vetting of voter registration lists to remove ineligible or false names, stronger voter identification measures such as an ID requirement, and bipartisan oversight of the election process.
March 10, 2008
Stolen Identities, Stolen Votes: A Case Study in Voter Impersonation
By Hans A. von Spakovsky
(Legal Memorandum #22)
Contrary to claims made by prominent newspapers and attorneys, in-person voting fraud is a real problem. It is also widespread, as documented in reports and court cases from around the country. Voter-ID requirements directly target in-person voting fraud; would prevent illegal aliens from casting votes; and, contrary to the claims of opponents, do not affect voter turnout.
November 20, 2009
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