FREE CLE 7.0 Louisiana Credit Hours Follow us on Twitter: @lalawreview #LSULawSymposium The enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 marked a watershed in American history. That Act promised the fulfilment of the long-delayed aspirations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments by providing, for the first time, effective legal means by which individuals and federal authorities could challenge discrimination against minorities in the exercise of their right to vote and eliminate the traditional mechanisms and practices through which that discrimination was conducted. For half a century the Voting Rights Act has proven remarkably effective, transforming the landscape of American politics by extending the right to vote and the realistic possibility of election to office to all citizens. But despite or perhaps because of its success, the Voting Rights Act and the franchise it was intended to protect face a troubled future. The broad bipartisan support which the Act once enjoyed appears to be eroding. New mechanisms which, some argue, threaten to limit the ability to vote or the effectiveness of one's vote including but not limited to restrictive voter ID laws and gerrymandered districts have come to the fore. And in its recent decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Act which had enabled the federal Justice Department to review changes in voting laws in states and localities with a history of racial discrimination in voting. In this Symposium, the LSU Law Center and experts from across the nation will gather to mark the fiftieth Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Please join us as we celebrate what the Voting Rights Act has achieved, discuss the challenges that it faces today, and consider what the future may hold for the Act and for its underlying goal of a broad and non-discriminatory exercise of all citizens' right to vote. lsulaw.net/symposium
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Registration and Continental Breakfast Welcoming Address & Opening Remarks Chancellor Jack Weiss, LSU Law Center 8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. 8:30 a.m. - 8:40 a.m. Keynote Address Looking Back: What Justice Thurgood Marshall Can Teach Us About the Voting Rights Act 8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Dean Wendy Brown Scott, Mississippi College of Law Break 9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Panel 1 History of U.S. Voting Rights Moderator: Vice Chancellor Raymond Diamond, LSU Law Center Speakers: Paul Finkelman, Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Earl Maltz, Rutgers School of Law Orville Vernon Burton, Clemson University Lunch 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Panel 2 Voting Rights and the Problem of Electoral Gerrymandering Moderator: Professor John Devlin, LSU Law Center Speakers: Justin Levitt, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Franita Tolson, Florida State University School of Law Theodore Rave, University of Houston Law Center Break 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Panel 3 The Future of the Voting Rights Act after Shelby County Moderator: Professor Michael Coenen, LSU Law Center Speakers: Seth Davis, University of California-Irvine, School of Law Nicholas Stephanopoulos, University of Chicago Law School John Neiman, Maynard, Cooper & Gale PC 3:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. lsulaw.net/symposium
SPEAKER BIOS Dean Wendy Brown Scott (Mississippi College School of Law) Wendy B. Scott currently serves as Dean of the Mississippi College School of Law, where her scholarship has focused on constitutional theory and school desegregation. Her work on the desegregation of public colleges and universities has been widely cited. Orville Vernon Burton (Clemson University) Orville Vernon Burton is Creativity Professor of Humanities, Professor of History and Computer Science at Clemson University, and the Director of the Clemson CyberInstitute. Burton is a prolific author and scholar whose research and teaching interests include the American South, especially race relations and community, and the intersection of humanities and social sciences. Seth Davis (UC Irvine School of Law) Seth Davis scholarship explores the design of public and private rights and public and private enforcement by focusing upon unacknowledged border crossings between federal administrative law and federal litigation on one side and property law and tort on the other. His work has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, and the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Paul Finkleman (Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania) A specialist in American legal history, constitutional law, and race and the law, Professor Paul Finkelman is the author of more than 150 scholarly articles and more than 30 books. Professor Finkleman is currently a Senior Fellow for the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Scholar-in-Residence at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Justin Levitt (Loyola Law School, Los Angeles) Levitt is a national expert in constitutional law and the law of democracy, with particular focus on election administration and redistricting. Levitt has been invited to testify before committees of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, several state legislative bodies, and both federal and state courts. He also maintains the website All About Redistricting, tracking the process of state and federal redistricting around the country, including litigation. Levitt has served in various capacities for several presidential campaigns, helping to run an effort ensuring that tens of millions of citizens could vote and have those votes counted. Earl Maltz (Rutgers School of Law) Earl Maltz is the author of Rethinking Constitutional Law: Originalism, Interventionism, and the Politics of Judicial Review (1994), Civil Rights, The Constitution and Congress, 1863-1865 (1990), and over 50 articles on constitutional law, statutory interpretation, the role of the courts and legal history. Professor Maltz teaches Constitutional Law, Employment Discrimination, Conflicts of Law, and a seminar on the Supreme Court.
John Neiman (Maynard Cooper & Gale PC) SPEAKER BIOS In the three years before he arrived at Maynard Cooper, where he currently practices, Mr. Neiman was the Solicitor General of Alabama. In that capacity he supervised all appeals in which the state government was a party or amicus. He also authored Supreme Court amicus briefs in a number of significant cases, including a landmark decision out of Alabama declaring part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Teddy Rave (University of Houston Law Center) Teddy Rave joined the faculty of the University of Houston Law Center in the Fall of 2013. He writes and teaches in the areas of civil procedure, complex litigation, constitutional law, and election law. His articles have appeared in such journals as the Harvard Law Review and the Vanderbilt Law Review. Nicholas Stephanopoulos (University of Chicago School of Law) Nicholas Stephanopoulos s research and teaching interests include election law, constitutional law, legislation, administrative law, comparative law, and local government law. He often writes about law and politics for popular publications, and is involved as well in several policy reform initiatives. He has been named to the National Law Journal s Chicago s 40 Under 40. He previously worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Jenner & Block LLP, where his practice focused on complex federal litigation, appellate advocacy (including ten Supreme Court briefs), and election law (particularly redistricting and campaign finance). Franita Tolson (Florida State University College of Law) Franita Tolson is the Betty T. Ferguson Professor of Voting Rights at Florida State University College of Law. Her scholarship and teaching focus on the areas of election law, constitutional law, legal history and employment discrimination. Recently, she has written on the federalism implications of partisan gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
FREE REGISTRATION AND CLE CREDIT Lunch will be available at no charge; however, pre-registration is required. The deadline to pre-register is January 9, 2015. LOCATION: LSU Law Center McKernan Auditorium 1 East Campus Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70803 TIME: 8:00 a.m. Register online at lsulaw.net/symposium or Complete the form below and submit it via: Fax - 225/578-1685 Email - lawreview@law.lsu.edu Mail - Louisiana Law Review W114 Paul M. Hebert Law Center 1 E. Campus Drive, Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803 LSU Law Voting Rights Symposium January 16, 2015 Registration Form (only one registrant per form) NAME TITLE ORGANIZATION/COMPANY LAW SCHOOL ADDRESS CITY STATE Zip PHONE FAX E-MAIL LA BAR # WILL YOU ATTEND THE COMPLIMENTARY LUNCH?
Parking Weekday parking in the Law Center lot is no longer allowed. Limited free parking is available in the North Fraternity Lot (#8 on map) located on W. Lakeshore. However, you must first obtain a temporary permit from the Visitor Center (#10 on map). Metered parking is available in the Union Square Parking Garage (#9 on map) located next door to the Law Center. The rate for garage parking is $1.50/hr.