Rakestraw - AP GOV blogs

1.  Why does Shira Scheindlin argue that due process rights for men like Rob Porter have not been violated? The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides, inter alia, that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.” This legal standard means what it says. Certainly, Rob Porter and others who have been accused of sexual abuse or harassment are not being deprived of their life or their liberty as a result of the allegations made against them. 2.  How does she describe the steps in the process when a legal action is brought against a person? The due process of a court action is often a very complicated and lengthy affair, involving pretrial discovery, witnesses, and a judicial proceeding. But given the stakes of loss of life or liberty, that makes sense. In context, the accusations that cause a person to lose his job must be evaluated by the employer, who must make a judgment call based on the strength of those alle...

1. Why was it strange for the Democratic candidate to win in the Pennsylvania district? One reason that the results are especially scary for Republicans — Democrat Conor Lamb is the apparent winner in a district that President Trump won by 20 percentage points — is because it came on reasonably high turnout, the sort of turnout one might expect in this year’s midterms. 2. On the chart, what is "Democratic swing"? Democratic swing is the difference between the special election result and the district’s partisan lean. Partisan lean is the average difference between how the constituency voted and how the country voted overall in the last two presidential elections. 3. Which special elections so far have had the largest Democratic swing? Alabama U.S. Senate election, Kansas 4th election, and the Pennsylvania 18th election 4. How is the generic ballot polling different from the results to far in these special elections? Those special election results consist of actual pe...