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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This novel claim would work just like its racial analogue-except it would revolve entirely around a non-racial cleavage.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Two of these approaches are familiar: prohibitions of partisan gerrymandering and systems of proportional representation. We further propose a cause of action for non-racial vote dilution.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

As a ruling constitutionally rooted in Congress's power to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, Callais has no bearing on state voting rights acts that are more aggressive than their federal precursor. Nor does Callais impede race-neutral strategies that nevertheless stop much racial vote dilution.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Since some political aim is almost always incompatible with greater minority representation, this hurdle is nearly impossible to overcome. While federal law can no longer directly curb racial vote dilution, however, the fight against this problem is far from over.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The Court achieves this result, above all, by requiring a plaintiff to prove that minority representation could increase without undermining any of a jurisdiction's political goals.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

and a lawful alternative policy would likely improve the group's representation. The Supreme Court's 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais effectively terminates racial vote dilution as a federal legal claim.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Here's the abstract: For more than half a century, federal law recognized the concept of racial vote dilution. Members of a racial group experience this condition when voting is racially polarized, the group is proportionally underrepresented,

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

New paper by @ruthgreenwood.bsky.social and me: "The Death and Rebirth of Vote Dilution," forthcoming in the Supreme Court Review. We show how the Court tried to kill the concept of racial vote dilution in Callais -- and why this idea will never die. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

The Death and Rebirth of Vote Dilution

For more than half a century, federal law recognized the concept of racial vote dilution. Members of a racial group experience this condition when voting is rac

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

We filed our reply brief on Friday in our anti-competitive gerrymandering challenge against Wisconsin's congressional districts. The issue (for now) is only whether our claim is cognizable under Wisconsin's constitution. Oral argument is on Sept. 16. www.hlselectionlaw.org/s/20260821-A...

hlselectionlaw.org

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It’s feasible to identify intra-party factions, measure disparities in their treatment, and assess plans’ fairness with quantitative metrics and computer-generated maps.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Its representational harms are analogous to those inflicted by partisan gerrymandering, and it can be regulated through a similar doctrinal framework. Finally, we offer an empirical proof of concept using a recent state senate redistricting as a case study.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

These span the one-party Democratic South, major Democratic cities, and heavily Republican states. We then argue that intra-partisan gerrymandering should be recognized as a distinct legal theory, especially under state constitutions.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

We define the practice, compare it to other forms of abusive redistricting, and explain how it unsettles views of parties as monolithic entities. Next, we provide several examples of intra-partisan gerrymandering.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Intra-partisan gerrymandering matters precisely because it shapes the identity of the ruling intra-party coalition. In this Article, we first conceptualize intra-partisan gerrymandering.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

In jurisdictions dominated by a single party, though, intra-partisan gerrymandering is more impactful than its partisan counterpart. In these places, there’s no doubt which party will govern. What’s uncertain is which actors within this party will prevail.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

From the abstract: Partisan gerrymandering is a familiar practice. But intra-partisan gerrymandering—one faction within a party designing districts to handicap another faction within the same party—has barely been noticed by courts or scholars.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

New article alert: Aaron Kaufman, Chris Kenny, and I just posted "Intra-Partisan Gerrymandering," forthcoming in @michlawreview.bsky.social. The piece looks at one faction within a party using redistricting to disadvantage another faction within the same party. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

Intra-Partisan Gerrymandering

<div> <i>Partisan</i> gerrymandering is a familiar practice. But <i>intra-partisan</i> gerrymandering—one faction within a party designing districts to handica

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

My new article, "Redistricting Without Tradeoffs," is now live on @columlrev.bsky.social. www.columbialawreview.org/content/redi... The piece argues that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, tradeoffs in redistricting are generally weak to nonexistent. We can usually have our cake and eat it too.

columbialawreview.org

REDISTRICTING WITHOUT TRADEOFFS - Columbia Law Review

Introduction The law of redistricting is based on the potential for tradeoffs among line-drawing criteria. Better performance along one dimension—compactness, partisan fairness, minority representatio...

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

In contrast, this disparity dramatically shrinks in November even-year elections -- the plaintiffs' desired remedy. The suit is the first under the Colorado VRA and also the first voter suppression case under any state VRA.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

HLS's @electionclinic.bsky.social and @wilmerhale.bsky.social filed a suit alleging that the odd timing of Colorado Springs's local elections violates the Colorado VRA. This odd timing is responsible for a large racial disparity in turnout in local elections. www.hlselectionlaw.org/coelectionti...

hlselectionlaw.org

Reducing Racial Discrimination in Voting in Colorado Springs — Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School

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Reposted by Nicholas Stephanopoulos

Legal Talk Network @legaltalknet.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Voting. Midterm elections. Current issues. Tune in to #Lawyer2Lawyer with host J.Craig Williams @legaltalknet.bsky.social‬ and special guest, @profnickstephan.bsky.social @hls.harvard.edu legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/law...

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

After the Virginia result last night, @planscore.org's model predicts a nearly unbiased House if the electoral environment is like 2024. If the national vote is more like D+5 (per current polls), the model still predicts a modest pro-Republican skew. planscore.org#!predict6D-u...

planscore.org

PlanScore

PlanScore is a first-of-its-kind gerrymandering scoring service for new district plans, allowing users to upload maps and instantly receive projected data about their partisan consequences. You can al...

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Come work with @ruthgreenwood.bsky.social and me! Apply to be a Clinical Instructor in Harvard Law School's Election Law Clinic. The job offers amazing opportunities to litigate novel election law theories and train the next generation of election lawyers. careers.harvard.edu/job/clinical...

careers.harvard.edu

Clinical Instructor, Election Law Clinic

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Very nice to see Andrew Gelman - who helped develop the "Gelman-King" bias of district maps - conceding that the metric doesn't work in uncompetitive states. Other scholars defended the measure's use in Utah, but the court saw through these claims. statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/03/13/c...

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu

Being picky and careful pays off! (Utah redistricting story) | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

This major new volume on campaign finance is now out. My contribution (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....) argues that, even if legislative quid pro quos are rare, quintessential corruption remains common in the context of government contracts. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

papers.ssrn.com

Campaign Finance and "Real" Corruption

Courts and commentators often assume that “real” corruption—quid pro quo corruption—is largely absent in modern American politics. But it isn’t. In at least one

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

You can now explore different electoral scenarios on @planscore.org. For Dems to capture the House, they need to win the popular vote by about 1 point. The House's bias is tiny if 2026 is like 2024 (or more pro-Rep), but grows if 2026 is a better Dem year. electionlawblog.org?p=154769

electionlawblog.org

2026 Scenarios for the U.S. House Election #ELB

Another PlanScore update that may be of interest to ELB readers: There’s a new “2026 Scenarios” feature that allows users to see how the U.S. House map as a whole would perform under different elector...

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

This NPR segment on which population counts for redistricting (www.npr.org/2026/03/09/n...) quotes a 2021 paper I wrote with Jowei Chen. We found that changing the unit of apportionment would have significant racial -- but more muted partisan -- effects. www.californialawreview.org/print/democr...

npr.org

The next redistricting battle might be who is counted in state legislative districts

A Republican push to alter the census may lead to a radical shift in redistricting for state legislatures — drawing districts that don't take into account children and non-U.S. citizen adults.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

If only there was some way we could know what the Court was thinking -- some process through which the Court could justify its actions. Ah well.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

3. The Court could think that any remedial district drawn *here* -- where the trial court never considered whether a reasonably-configured crossover district could be created -- would be unlawful. But why should a shoddy trial court ruling have any constitutional significance?

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

2. The Court could think that claims for "crossover" districts are inherently unconstitutional. A plurality flirted with this idea in Bartlett. But why would a court-ordered, reasonably-configured, crossover district necessarily be unlawful? It's far from clear.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

What explains the Court's stay in the Staten Island case? 1. The Court could think that race-conscious districting is inherently unlawful. That's what Alito says in his concurrence (contradicting his own opinion in, e.g., Milligan). But no other justice joined Alito.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Check out this very cool update to @planscore.org: You can now move a slider back and forth to simulate how a map would perform under any electoral environment. For more, see this post by @mike.teczno.com: medium.com/planscore/pl...

medium.com

PlanScore’s New Midterm-Ready Vote Predictions

This week, the 2026 mid-term election season is kicking off in earnest with U.S. House primaries in Arkansas, Texas, and North Carolina…

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Reposted by Nicholas Stephanopoulos

Votebeat @votebeat.org · 17/02/2026

How much worse can gerrymandering get? Will the Supreme Court strike down a landmark voting rights law? We asked two experts.

bit.ly

Chat: How a Supreme Court case could turbocharge gerrymandering

How much worse can gerrymandering get? Will the Supreme Court strike down a landmark voting rights law? We asked two experts.

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Reposted by Nicholas Stephanopoulos

Stephen Wolf @stephenwolf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

An informative interview with @justinlevitt.bsky.social & @profnickstephan.bsky.social. Among other things, they discuss how the Supreme Court could make seemingly small changes to the Voting Rights Act that make VRA§2 redistricting lawsuits virtually impossible without deeming it unconstitutional

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

After Bost, standing could largely disappear as an issue in election law cases -- at least if plaintiffs can get a candidate to join the suit. If only we had known this in Whitford, the whole history of partisan gerrymandering might be different.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I wrote this essay for NYU's democracy project on the critical need to curb "misalignment" in American politics. Notably, misalignment is pervasive even when (as in 2024) the presidential candidate preferred by voters wins the election. democracyproject.org/posts/curbin...

democracyproject.org

Curbing Misalignment in American Politics

A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

In policy terms, the usual absence of tradeoffs means that line-drawers can often have it all—maps that simultaneously comply with traditional criteria, treat the major parties fairly, lead to competitive elections, and properly represent minority voters.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Legally, it bolsters plaintiffs alleging partisan gerrymandering or racial vote dilution, because their objectives can typically be achieved without sacrificing other goals.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

In most cases, progress along one dimension (like compactness, partisan fairness, or minority representation) requires no regression along another axis. This conclusion has sweeping implications for redistricting law and policy.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

These ensembles cover all electoral levels for seven priority states as well as congressional maps for all states with two or more U.S. House districts. The Article finds that, contrary to the conventional wisdom of courts and scholars, redistricting tradeoffs are generally weak to nonexistent.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

This Article is the first to rigorously analyze the existence and extent of redistricting tradeoffs. The Article relies on ensembles of billions of district maps generated randomly by cutting-edge computer algorithms.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Here's the abstract: The law of redistricting is built on the assumption that tradeoffs among line-drawing criteria are pervasive. This view helps explain crucial elements of partisan gerrymandering, racial vote dilution, and racial gerrymandering doctrine.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

I just posted "Redistricting Without Tradeoffs," forthcoming in @columlrev.bsky.social, on SSRN. The article relies on huge sets of computer-generated district maps to show that tradeoffs between redistricting criteria are much less common than is often thought. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

Redistricting Without Tradeoffs

<div> The law of redistricting is built on the assumption that tradeoffs among line-drawing criteria are pervasive. This view helps explain crucial elements of

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Reposted by Nicholas Stephanopoulos

Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School @electionclinic.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Watch how gerrymandering has changed the partisan skew of the U.S. House and state legislatures with the newest PlanScore update!

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Check out this cool new feature on PlanScore, showing the U.S. House's aggregate bias over time. Here's 2024 (with estimated scores for the states that have redrawn their maps since then): planscore.org#!2026-ushouse

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Victory in our New York VRA case against Newburgh! The Court of Appeals unanimously held that the town lacks capacity to facially challenge the statute. So our case continues to trial, and the dilution of the town's minority voters' influence may still be fixed. www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decis...

nycourts.gov

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

What an irony it would be if Republicans, by initiating this unnecessary and unprecedented mid-decade redistricting war, ended up costing themselves the House.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Possibly of more interest to election law folks: The court really understood the various measures of partisan fairness. It correctly dismissed the state's preferred metrics, partisan bias and the mean-median difference, as inapplicable in an uncompetitive state like Utah.

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Nicholas Stephanopoulos @profnickstephan.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

My response to Sachs and Kleinfeld's article advocating parents voting for their children is now up. My idea is to have young adults -- not parents -- vote on behalf of children due to their greater partisan and ideological similarity. ndlawreview.org/give-young-a...

ndlawreview.org

Give Young Adults The Vote | Notre Dame Law Review

ARTICLE Give Young Adults The Vote Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos* Joshua Kleinfeld and Stephen Sachs make a significant contribution to the literature on children’s disenfranchisement by describing and d...

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