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| | SSRN-Bad Legislative Intent by Richard Hasen |
 | | For purposes of this Article, by bad intent in the election law area, I mean a legislative intent to protect incumbents, a political party, or the two major political parties, from political competition. |
 | | Rather than focus on intent, courts should primarily examine the effect of election laws on the rights of individuals and groups, and, when the effects are severe enough, carefully balance those bad effects against the stated and proven interests of the state in the election law. |
 | | Part II argues that proof of bad legislative intent should not be sufficient for courts to strike down election laws on constitutional grounds because the test will allow for more arbitrary and pretextual judicial decisionmaking. |
| papers.ssrn.com /sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=883678 (566 words) |
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