The New Normal in Election and Political Law Conference to Be Held April 11

The New Normal in Election and Political Law conference will bring together academics, advocates, and strategists from across the political spectrum to discuss the state of political and electoral legal practice, with an eye to generating new ideas for research and advocacy. The event, which is sponsored by the Yale Law & Policy Review and Yale Law Political Society, will be held on April 11, 2015.

“This is a unique opportunity to foster better engagement between those who study elections and some of the top political lawyers and campaign finance experts in the nation,” said Ann M. Ravel, Chair of the Federal Election Commission and the conference’s keynote speaker. “It's important for people to understand the new political landscape and its implications for our democracy.”

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, and Shelby County v. Holder have reshaped campaign finance and voting rights law. These changes are expected to have significant, long-term effects on electoral politics. Yet most analyses have focused on these decisions’ individual impacts rather than their collective consequences on the political system, according to the conference organizers.

“We are asking people from all perspectives to sit together and confront today's toughest questions,” said conference organizer Alexander Holtzman ‘16. “Election law is changing how today's campaigns are run. This is our chance to talk about what we want from our elections and the laws that govern them.”

The conference will feature panels on political parties, election design, ballot access and voter identification requirements, campaign finance disclosure, and the role for election law in political campaigns. Participants include Joseph Fishkin ’07, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Texas; Heather Gerken, the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law; Dale Ho ’05, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project; and Robert Post ‘77, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law.

For more information, visit the conference’s website.