Voting Rights and Election Law

Voting Rights and Election Law is a teachable, yet sophisticated, casebook that takes readers through the law of the political process, from the right to vote through vote tabulation (and re-tabulation). Along the way, the book explores and explains the one-person, one-vote doctrine; gerrymandering; the Voting Rights Act; ballot access and ballot design; free-speech rights of candidates, parties, and ordinary citizens; campaign finance restrictions and disclosure requirements; and election administration.

This book presents the law of politics in a thorough but understandable way that approaches election law primarily as law rather than as an exercise in political theory, and that emphasizes the text of leading court opinions rather than commentary and competing political theories. Narrative introductions and notes clearly set forth and explain the law, and cases are edited to allow students to examine the courts' own words. Students are encouraged through notes and discussion questions to critique the empirical assumptions and theoretical premises behind the opinions, paying particular attention to the proper role of the courts in policing politics. Frequent problems give students and instructors an opportunity to examine how the principles of election law should be applied to realistic situations—reinforcing the lesson that election law is not merely a subject of historical or theoretical interest but one that shapes political outcomes year after year.

The fourth edition brings the material in the third edition up to date, particularly in its coverage of race and redistricting. The new edition adds Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and Allen v. Milligan as principal cases and also previews Louisiana v. Callais, giving students an understanding of the Supreme Court's evolving interpretation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the tension between the VRA and the Fourteenth Amendment's ban on racial gerrymandering. The fourth edition also contains expanded coverage of partisan gerrymandering and the independent-state-legislature theory with the inclusion of Moore v. Harper as a principal case.