Early Returns - Law and Politics with Jan Baran

The first Monday in October is the traditional beginning of a new Supreme Court term.  This week the nine justices began hearing cases that involve our constitutional rights and that shape U.S. law.  Each term, the Supreme Court seems to be tackling the big issues including abortion, gun rights, voting rights, affirmative action and the checks and balances of the constitutional powers of Congress,...

The 2022 mid-term elections will decide the fate of 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats.  With 90 days remaining before election day, Early Returns welcomes nationally respected nonpartisan voting analyst, Nathan Gonzales.  As editor and publisher of Inside Elections , Nathan has studied and analyzed campaigns and elections for over 20 years.  He shares with our audience how he conducts his resear...

Fifty years ago, on June 17, 1972, a group of men were arrested here in Washington for breaking into the offices of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office building.  The event was seen as odd. It was not heavily reported at first; but, it unleashed, over the following two years, major congressional and grand jury investigations, numerous criminal convictions, an impeachment proc...

It has been six years since Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign was accused of colluding with Russia to win the White House. Those allegations have caused a tidal wave of legal battles—ranging from congressional inquiries, to a Special Counsel probe led by Robert Mueller, an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, and multiple prosecutions. In this episode of Early Returns , Jan discusses some...

Under the Constitution, each state establishes the time, place, and manner of holding an election for Senator or Representative unless Congress passes a nationwide change of the rules.  State laws on how to register and vote, where to vote, and how and when votes are counted vary widely.  COVID and the 2020 elections caused many voting changes and controversies.  Few people are more attuned to the...

Fundraising, hush money and demonstrations can make a candidate or political operative a defendant. Criminal prosecutions stemming from campaigns and politics increasingly wind up in courts and before juries.  Josh Gerstein, POLITICO’s Senior Legal Affairs Reporter, joins me on Early Returns to discuss some of the trials he has covered and current pending cases. In this episode, we talk about a Ho...

Russia has launched a war in Ukraine.  While the West now focuses on diplomacy and military assistance, many foreign nations, including the combatants, spent years seeking to influence American politicians and public opinion.  There was lobbying about the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.  There were investigations about Russian influence in the elections for President.  There were alleg...

The Federal Election Commission is a unique agency.  It polices politics but must be sensitive to constitutional limits.  It is supposed to have six bipartisan commissioners and requires four votes for action, but sometimes it deadlocks 3-3.  For almost two years it was shorthanded even the necessary four votes until December of 2021 when the Senate confirmed three new members. Allen Dickerson was...