Professor Jasmine Harris Publishes Op-ed with Tribune News Service

Professor Jasmine Harris placed an op-ed with the Tribune News Service that was published by newspapers and websites in Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and around the United States, as well as internationally in publications such as Israel’s Hamodia. The article concerns the obstacles that people with disabilities face when voting.  People with mental disabilities, she writes, are often subject to outdated state laws that prevent them from exercising voting rights.

“Unless a court has specifically found otherwise, adults with mental disability should be presumed to have the capacity to vote,” writes Harris. “Furthermore, states should also repeal antiquated state constitutional and statutory language emphasizing the incapacity of people with mental disabilities. Language affects public perceptions.”

“People with disabilities must be allowed to vote, even if they need support to do so,” the article concludes. “That’s not good politics or charity; that’s compliance with the constitutional requirements of equal protection and recognition of the integration and equal citizenship promised to these voters.”

Professor Jasmine Harris joined the King Hall faculty in 2015 to teach evidence and disability law.  She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School and a former clerk for the Honorable Harold Baer, Jr. in the Southern District of New York. Professor Harris’s research lies at the intersection of civil rights, civil procedure, and social psychology. She is particularly concerned with the ways in which rules and procedures can change social norms, and, currently, explores these questions in the disability context.