U.S. Voting Rights: A Practical Perspective
Professors
Jon Greenbaum,
Marcia Johnson-Blanco, and
Robert Kengle
J.D. Seminar 568
| 4 credit hours
(year long)
This two semester course will examine contemporary legal issues and trends in U.S. voting rights
jurisprudence.
For the fall semester, the course will follow a modified seminar course format. Students will meet weekly for a two hour combined lecture and discussion on voting rights case law, and to a lesser extent electoral policy where particular focus will be given to legal issues surrounding access to the ballot. On the case law side, students will review seminal voting rights cases including those that deal with suffrage, racial vote dilution, restrictions on the right to vote, and redistricting in cases brought under the Equal Protection Clause and Election Clause of the United States Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and other statutes. We will also discuss less known voting rights cases that address contemporary ballot access issues including felony disenfranchisement and the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act. With regards to policy, students will discuss and analyze recent legislative and advocacy efforts to secure voting rights and instill confidence in the franchise.
In the second semester of the course, students will work approximately 10 hours per week at the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Students will be given assignments based on the existing needs of the project. Examples of assignments include drafting pleadings in ongoing cases, drafting memoranda on legal and factual issues, and assisting in developing and implementing plans to reform elections at the federal and state level.
| Course No. |
Cr. |
Faculty |
Days/Times |
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|
Fall
2009 Schedule |
LAWJ-568-05
This is a year-long course.
Updated 7/14/2009
(CRN #: 17781)
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| 2 |
Greenbaum J /
Johnson-Blanco M |
|
SR
|
|
Spring
2010 Schedule |
LAWJ-568-05
This is a year-long course.
(CRN #: 10578)
|
| 2 |
Greenbaum J /
Johnson M /
Kengle R |
|
SR
|
| |
|
Mutually Excluded Courses:
Students may concurrently enroll in an externship or clinic in the fall semester. Students may not receive credit for this course and Animal Protection Litigation Seminar or Community Lawyering Seminar: Dismantling Structural Racism and Creating Social Change or Cosmetic Safety Regulation: Lawyering in the Public Interest or Death Penalty Litigation Seminar or Dietary Supplements Regulation: Lawyering in the Public Interest or Human Rights Advocacy Seminar: U.S. Resettlement Policy and the Iraqi Refugee Crisis or Human Rights Fact-Finding Seminar: Access to Essential Medicines in the Dominican Republic or Local Dynamics of Immigration Law and Policy or Motherhood and Criminality or Rule of Law Promotion and Civil Society in China: Implications for Women and Girls or State and Local Government Lawyering or Wrongful Convictions.
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Notes:
This is a 4 credit, year-long course. Two credits will be awarded for the 2 hour weekly seminar in the fall which includes weekly journals, class participation, participation in Election Protection, and a seminar paper. The remaining two credits will be awarded for 10 hours of supervised work per week in the Spring semester. In addition, there will be periodic meetings to be arranged at a later date in the Spring semester.
Note: The 2 credits of supervised work are mandatory pass/fail and count toward the 6 credit pass/fail limit. Students will be allowed to take another course pass/fail in the same semester as the supervised work.
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