Columbus, Ohio Site of Latest Voting Rights Institute to Train New Generation of Voting Rights Lawyers

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The Campaign Legal Center’s latest Voting Rights Institute training takes place today in Columbus, Ohio to train the next generation of voting rights lawyers.  At the session, co-hosted by American Constitution Society, practitioners and law students will learn the ins and outs of the enforcement of voting rights law.  Cases brought to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution will be a particular focus of the training.  

The half-day training program, taught by some of the most respected voting rights practitioners in the country, will count toward Continuing Legal Education (CLE).  This will be the second Institute training held outside of Washington, DC.  The first was held in January in New York and another is scheduled next month in Atlanta.

“The Supreme Court in its Shelby County decision drastically altered voting rights in America, significantly disadvantaging voters in the courts, but cases must be brought to protect the rights of all Americans to vote and a new generation of litigators must be trained to bring these cases,” said J. Gerald Hebert, Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center.  “To understand this pressing need for new litigators, one need look no further than the wake of the Shelby County decision which has seen laws passed by states and municipalities across the country to curb the voting rights of Americans.  The Legal Center’s Voting Rights Institute is working to replenish the ranks of voting rights litigators for the inevitable battles ahead.”

Experts in the field will provide background on the Voting Rights Act and relevant federal court cases to participants and will then focus on the mechanics of litigating voting rights cases.  The Voting Rights Act will be covered in detail and participants will learn how it impacts voting rights laws on a state-by-state basis.  Participants will learn the skills needed to litigate voting rights cases from seasoned litigators who have brought these cases, in many instances for decades.  Legal Center’s Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert, serves as lead instructor and is joined by veteran voting rights litigators, appellate advocates, and scholars in the field.

In addition to Mr. Hebert, the Institute’s expert faculty will include: Daniel Tokaji, (Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law); Don McTigue (Managing Attorney, McTigue & McGinnis LLC & Adjunct Professor at Capital University Law School); Thomas Saenz (President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund); and Marcia Blanco-Johnson (Co-Director, Voting Rights Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law).

Financial support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (rbf.org) and the Wallace Global Fund for the Voting Rights Institute is gratefully acknowledged.  

To read the full agenda for the Columbus training, click here.