On October 8, the latest Voting Rights Institute training was held in Miami to train the next generation of Voting Rights attorneys and activists. Video of the session, sponsored by the Campaign Legal Center and the American Constitution Society, is now available.
The Voting Rights Institute was created to fill the On October 8, the latest Voting Rights Institute training was held in Miami to train the next generation of Voting Rights attorneys and activists. Video of the session, sponsored by the Campaign Legal Center and the American Constitution Society, is now available.ent need for a new generation of voting rights litigators and concerned citizens to combat the surge of vote suppression tactics being applied at the state and local level nationwide. These abuses have only mushroomed since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby Countydecision last year seriously undermined enforcement of the Voting Rights Act by gutting the Act’s preclearance provisions.
Participants in Miami were taught the ‘ins and outs’ of protecting the right to vote through the enforcement of voting rights laws. Particular focus was devoted to cases brought to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
The training program, taught by some of the most respected voting rights practitioners in the country, provided background on the Voting Rights Act and relevant federal court cases and focused on the mechanics of litigating voting rights cases. As he has in all of the Voting Rights Institute trainings to date, the Legal Center’s Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert served as lead instructor in Miami.
In addition to Mr. Hebert, the Institute’s expert faculty in Miami included: Nancy Abudu (Director of Legal Operations , ACLU of Florida); Neil Bradley (Former Associate Director at ACLU Voting Rights Project); Chad Dunn (Partner, Brazil & Dunn); and Franita Tolson (Betty T. Ferguson Professor of Voting Rights, Florida State University College of Law).
More than 300 attorneys have already participated in Voting Rights Institute trainings around the country. In 2015, VRI trainings are already being planned for Chicago, Nashville, and Austin.
Financial support for the Voting Rights Institute session in Miami was provided by the Ford Foundation the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and the Wallace Global Fund. Holland & Knight generously provided the use of its Miami offices for the training.
To watch the video of the training, click here.