Coale Mind

"Who's on First?" - Why it matters who is sued in election cases.

David Coale Season 1 Episode 15

Abbott and Costello struggled to answer, "Who's on first?" In election cases today about the COVID-19 pandemic, that same question--applied to the specific defendants who have been sued--can resolve the case, and implicates basic principles about how our government is organized.

This episode considers Mi Familia Vota v. Abbott, a recent Fifth Circuit case about election law, in which the Court concluded that the plaintiffs had sued the wrong defendants (Texas's Governor and Secretary of State)--and reviews why that question is fundamental to the organization of our government under the Constitution.

The episode also honors the spectacular moustache of Edward Young, the Attorney General of Minnesota in 1908 and the namesake of the landmark case of Ex parte Young. 

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