Professor Hasen Speaks About “Safeguarding Democracy Project”

Professor Hasen Speaks to CNN about January 6, the risks of election subversion in 2024, and the new “Safeguarding Democracy Project” at UCLA Law.

The Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law promotes research, collaboration, and advocacy aimed at ensuring continued free and fair elections in the United States. The Project aims to protect the cornerstone of American democracy: that all eligible voters, and only eligible voters, will be able to freely cast a vote that will be fairly and accurately counted, with the winner of the election peacefully taking office and accepted as legitimate. It also focuses on bolstering the rule of law, the right to vote, and democratic institutions and norms.

Under the leadership of UCLA Law Professor Richard L. Hasen, one of the nation’s leading election law scholars, the Safeguarding Democracy Project is built upon the premise that tackling issues of U.S. election integrity must be collaborative: across ideologies, across scholarly disciplines, and as a bridge between theory and practice.

The Safeguarding Democracy Project brings together in dialogue scholars, election administrators, legislators, lawyers, voting rights advocates, and concerned citizens to develop practical solutions to urgent problems. It holds conferences, produces reports, and files legal briefs to educate and serve the public good.

Subscribe to the Safeguarding Democracy Project to hear about our upcoming events.

Who We Are

Upcoming Events

2024-25 Events

July 15: The Hammer Forum - Under the Gavel: The U.S. Supreme Court's Most Recent Term in Review

Co-presented with the Safeguarding Democracy Project

With rulings on major issues expected by the start of summer 2025, the United States Supreme Court is once again at the center of key legal and policy debates. An all-star panel of legal scholars analyzes the meaning and implications of the latest Supreme Court cases, including Trump v. Wilcox on the power of the President to control personnel and policy at independent federal agencies, Louisiana v. Callais on racial gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act, United States v. Skrmetti on denial of gender-affirming medical care for minors, as well as a trio of cases on religion in public schools under the First Amendment. The panelists will also consider the implications of these rulings on the role of the courts in response to the Trump Administration’s broad assertion of executive power including cases focused on President Trump’s immigration policy and the Alien Enemies Act.

Panelists include: Cary Franklin, the McDonald/Wright Chair of Law Faculty Director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy and Faculty Director of the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; Justin Levitt, the White House's first Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights (2021-22) and Professor of Law at Loyola Marymount University; Eugene Volokh, the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles and Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; and Jennifer M. Chacón, the Bruce Tyson Mitchell Professor of Law at Stanford University. Moderated by Rick Hasen, the Gary T. Schwartz Endowed Chair in Law, Professor of Law and Political Science (by courtesy) and Director, Safeguarding Democracy Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Check back in August for an update on our fall events line-up.

Past Events

Apr. 10: Partisan Primaries, Polarization, and the Risks of Extremism

Recording here.

Julia Azari, Marquette University, Ned Foley, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, Seth Masket, Denver University, and Rick Pildes, NYU Law School