Law Commons^™

New York State's Congressional Delegation May Lose Two Members, Jeffrey M. Wice

Redistricting Resources

According to a new report released on December 22, 2020 by Election Data Services, Inc. (EDS), New York State could lose up to two congressional districts after the official state population totals are announced in January. This article explores this possibility through 2020 Census data estimates.

Dean's Desk: Iu Maurer Research Focusing On Most Topical Issues Of 2020, Austen L. Parrish

Austen Parrish (2014-2022)

The three major stories of 2020 — the COVID-19 pandemic, the heightened awareness of racial injustice and the election — have made this year one that we will remember. While we couldn’t have envisioned all that would happen at the beginning of the year, our faculty are producing useful and thought-provoking scholarship on all these topics.

I often use my Dean’s Desk columns to celebrate student and alumni achievement, to describe new and innovative programs in our curriculum, or to share how the law school supports and collaborates with community organizations and the courts to provide pro bono legal services …

The Importance Of Transparent Elections, Rebecca Green

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Unravelling The Us Presidential Election, Lori A. Ringhand

Scholarly Works

One of the most perplexing things about US elections is the extent to which we litigate what in much of the rest of the world are routine nuts and bolts questions about how elections work. I had first-hand experience with this during the 2000 presidential election when I was living in the UK. Why, I constantly was asked, is the US Supreme Court deciding your presidential election?

It’s a good question, and also a timely one given how the current presidential election is unfolding.

Recounts And Ballot Challenges In The 2020 Presidential Election: Legal Expert Provides Insights, Bruce Brumberg, Rebecca Green

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Is It Time To Revisit Qualified Immunity?, Joseph A. Schremmer, Sean M. Mcgivern

Faculty Scholarship

The right to sue and defend in the courts of the several states are essential privileges of citizenship. Eight generations ago, this right was unavailable to black people, because descendants of African slaves were never intended to be citizens. Then, and for years to come, local governments failed to protect African Americans from violence and discrimination and were sometimes complicit in those violations.

Qualified immunity was born in 1982 when the Supreme Court decided Harlow v. Fitzgerald. With an outflow of questionable court decisions shielding officers solely because they act under color of state law, it is time for the …

Undefeated - Bike To Vote Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

No abstract provided.

Unwaivable: Public Enforcement Claims And Mandatory Arbitration, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

This essay, written for a conference on the “pathways and hurdles” that lie ahead in consumer litigation, is the first to examine the implications of California’s recent jurisprudence holding public enforcement claims unwaivable in standard-form contracts of adhesion, and the inevitable clash with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisional law interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act. With its rich history of rebuffing efforts to deprive citizens of public rights through private contract, California provides an ideal laboratory for exploring this escalating conflict.

Those Who Can Vote Are Duty-Bound To Do So, A. Benjamin Spencer

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

What Constitution Says About Peaceful Transfer Of Power, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] I recently was asked whether the Constitution requires a peaceful transfer of power following an election. Sadly, the questions is not merely theoretical. President Trump has stated that, if he loses the upcoming election, it will be through fraud. And he has made it clear that he will be unrestrained in his response to any efforts to oust him from office through an election he pronounces fraudulent.

The question of whether the Constitution requires a peaceful transfer of power prompts consideration of how we should conceptualize our Constitution. Is the Constitution merely the document that was written in 1787, …

Law School News: Bright Anniversaries In Uncertain Times 10/06/2020, Nicole Dyszlewski, Louisa Fredey

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Eight Months Later, Ellen D. Katz

Reviews

Rick Hasen’s Election Meltdown provides a concise and scathing analysis of what ails the American electoral process. Rick identifies four “principal dangers”—namely, voter suppression, “pockets of incompetence” in election administration, “dirty tricks,” and “incendiary rhetoric” about stolen or rigged elections. He argues that these dangers have contributed to past dysfunctional elections and are sure to infect future ones. Election Meltdown closes with some proposals to temper the identified dangers so as to make voting less difficult and restore confidence in the electoral process.

Law Library Blog (October 2020): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

The Support-Or-Advocacy Clauses, Richard Primus, Cameron O. Kistler

Articles

Two little known clauses of a Reconstruction-era civil rights statute are potentially powerful weapons for litigators seeking to protect the integrity of federal elections. For the clauses to achieve their potential, however, the courts will need to settle correctly a contested question of statutory interpretation: do the clauses create substantive rights, or do they merely create remedies for substantive rights specified elsewhere? The correct answer is that the clauses create substantive rights.

More Than The Vote: 16-Year-Old Voting And The Risks Of Legal Adulthood, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Advocates of 16-year-old voting have not grappled with two significant risks to adolescents of their agenda. First, a right to vote entails a corresponding accessibility to campaigns. Campaign speech is highly protected, and 16-year-old voting invites more unfettered access to minors by commercial, government, and political interests than current law tolerates. Opening 16-year-olds to campaign access undermines a considered legal system of managing the potential exploitation of adolescents, which sometimes includes direct regulation of entities and also gives parents authority in both law and culture to prohibit, manage, or supervise contacts with every kind of person interested in communicating with …

Undefeated - Anti-Vote Sintra Circles, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Two 18-inch sintra material circles with repeated text "YOUR VOTE DOESN'T MATTER" in an inverse spiral. One circle is white letters on black background; other circle is black letters on white background.

Undefeated - How The Us Compares In Voter Turnout Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - How the US Compares in Voter Turnout poster

The poster is an infographic representation comparing the voter turnout as a percentage of the population in the United States with the voter turnout in other countries. The square miles area of the United Sates and Canada are also represented.

Undefeated - Voter Intimidation Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Voter Intimidation poster

Seven subtle or not-so-subtle voter intimidation tactics are listed.

Undefeated - Vote Have Something To Celebrate Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - VOTE Have Something to Celebrate poster

The poster includes voter percentage statistics from the 2016 election in the US and in West Virginia. Voter registration statistics are also presented. The poster includes an image of Justice Ruther Bader Ginsburg and and image stating that "70% of young adults lose their voice at the polls".

Undefeated - Disinformation Memes Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Disinformation memes poster

The poster displays memes for encouraging seeking true voter information to and calls out Facebook for allowing fake news

Undefeated - An Even More Ugly Example! Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - An Even More Ugly Example! poster

"This What Gerrymandering Looks Like" display of West Virginia redistricting.

Undefeated - West Virginia Voting Rights Timeline Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - West Virginia Voting Rights Timeline poster

Timeline of West Virginia voting laws and suffrage organization establishment.

Undefeated - Voter Id Laws Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Voter ID Laws poster

Voter ID laws reduce voter turnout. Photo ID requirement more severely impact minorities and women voters. In the past 14 years, per 1 billion voters, 31 cases of identity misuse has been identified.

Undefeated - Gerrymandering / Jim Crow Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Gerrymandering / Jim Crow poster

Definitions of redistricting, malapportionment and gerrymandering as means of voter suppression.

Undefeated - Disenfranchisement Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Disenfranchisement poster

Convicted felons in the US do not have the right to vote. African Americans disenfranchisement rate is 1:13 voters, while the nonblack Americans rate is 1: 56.

Undefeated - Advocacy/Action Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

No abstract provided.

Undefeated - Elections Matter Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Elections matter poster

The poster draws attention to the ways that Congressional districts have been mapped inconsistently.

Undefeated - Women Still Don't Have Equal Rights (Or = Pay) Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Women Still Don't have Equal Rights (Or = Pay) poster

History of Equal Rights Amendments for Women.

Undefeated - Richard Chance Quote Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

Undefeated - Richard Chance Quotation poster

"We're the only advanced democracy that deliberately discourages people from voting." Richard Chance / The Guardian

Undefeated - Jim Crow Laws Ended With The Civil Rights Act, Or Not? Exhibit Panel, Sally Brown

Undefeated Exhibit Panels

No abstract provided.