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Justice Scalia’s Draft Dissent from Denial of Certiorari in Rice v. Cayetano

Document Type

Blog Posting

Publication Date

2023

Publication Title

Election Law Blog

Abstract

Last week, I was in Washington, DC, and stopped by the Library of Congress to check out the newly opened papers of Justice Stevens. Given my interest in the Fifteenth Amendment, I pulled the file for Rice v. Cayetano.

In that 2000 decision, the Court invalidated on Fifteenth Amendment grounds a Hawaii law that limited who could vote for trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) to “Native Hawaiians,” that is, persons who could trace their lineage back to Hawaii before Captain Cook’s landing in 1778. The Stevens Papers reveal that Justice Scalia successfully used a draft dissent from denial of certiorari to push the Court to grant cert. I’ve posted pictures of the previously unpublished opinion on Twitter, but here’s a quick summary of the behind-the-scenes machinations.

Keywords

Justice Stevens, Fifteenth Amendment, Rice v. Cayetano, Discrimination

Publication Citation

Travis Crum, Justice Scalia’s Draft Dissent from Denial of Certiorari in Rice v. Cayetano, Election Law Blog (May 23, 2023), https://electionlawblog.org/?p=136398

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This is a guest post by Travis Crum.

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