Professor Elmendorf Publishes Voting Rights Act Op-ed on Jurist

Professor Christopher S. Elmendorf has published an essay on the web-based legal news publication Jurist examining the Voting Rights Act as a barrier to partisan schemes to shape the electorate to one party's advantage.  The op-ed appeared as the latest installment of the "institutional column" King Hall faculty have agreed to contribute to Jurist each month as a regular feature of the publication.

In the op-ed, Professor Elmendorf argues that the "purpose" rather than the "effects" prong of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may offer a better basis to challenge recent state regulations of the voting process. "The effects prong will probably be whittled away or invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court," writes Elmendorf. "The purpose prong has a somewhat firmer constitutional footing, since regulations of the voting process meant to disadvantage a class of voters defined by race violate the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments."

Christopher S. Elmendorf is a Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law whose teaching and research interests include election law, administrative law, statutory interpretation, constitutional law, and property and natural resources law. 

"The Voting Rights Act: Limiting Partisan Barriers to Voter Participation"

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