Posted: April 13, 2011

Is Intent to Discriminate Required in Bush v. Gore Cases?

In this student paper, “Is Intent to Discriminate Required in Bush v. Gore Cases?” Owen Wolfe explores the relationship between Snowden v. Hughes’ requirement of intentional or facial discrimination and the apparent absence of such a requirement in Bush v. Gore. In what has become a particularly timely analysis, Wolfe situates his discussion in the context of the Hunter v. Hamilton County Board of Elections case, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court in an emergency stay application to Justice Kagan. (This stay application raises precisely the same issue as discussed in Wolfe’s paper.) After describing the two critical Supreme Court cases, Wolfe looks at lower court opinions, with particular focus on three 6th Circuit voting rights opinions and Minnesota’s Coleman v. Franken dispute. He wraps up with a look at arguments for and against the continued application of the intent requirement.

This student paper was written as coursework for a seminar on Disputed Elections. EL@M has posted it because we believe it has public value and adds to the discourse on this topic. It should be noted that the student has done prior work for attorneys representing one of the intervenors in the Hunter case as well as worked as a summer intern for the Ohio Democratic Party. However, this paper was prepared solely as part of course requirements. It represents the views of the student, not of the EL@M project or the individuals making up the project, and is posted solely to provide access to its analysis to the public.