[EL] FW: Rutgers University Law Review Symposium - Voting Rights & the Twenty-Sixth Amendment - Day 1 tomorrow

Wed Mar 30 11:32:18 PDT 2022

From: "Yael Bromberg, Esq." <ybromberg at bromberglawllc.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 10:41 AM
Subject: Rutgers University Law Review Symposium - Voting Rights & the Twenty-Sixth Amendment - Day 1 tomorrow

Colleagues,

Please join us and share the following announcement with your networks.

***

The Rutgers University Law Review invites you to our 2022 Symposium, Voting Rights Reform: The 26th Amendment, Youth Power, Lawmaking, and the Potential for a Third Reconstruction. The Symposium will take place over three days: Th March 31st (Zoom), W April 6th (Zoom), and Th April 7th (Live Panels at Rutgers Law School).

We are marking the 50th Anniversary Year of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen and outlawed age-based discrimination in ballot access. By July 1, 1971, the Amendment was ratified nearly unanimously and across partisan lines, rounding the requisite 38 states in a record-setting 100 days. Fifty years later, state legislatures across the country threaten the voting rights of all voters, and specifically target vulnerable voters including youth and people of color, despite the temporary availability of election modernization in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. This is the first law symposium ever dedicated to youth voting rights and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.

The 2022 Symposium of the Rutgers University Law Review will explore the legislative history of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and its lessons and relevance today, including the critical role that young people serve in protecting democracy; the appropriate standards of review that courts should use when reviewing challenges to youth voting restrictions; a data-driven perspective on the youth vote and the specific voting mechanisms that empower it; and the role of institutions of higher education as civic actors.

We kick off the Symposium on Zoom tomorrow Thursday March 31, from 11-1PM and 1:15-3PM EST. Join Us! Register now, and please circulate this announcement to those who may be interested.

Symposium Landing Page Here <https://rutgerslawreview.com/symposium/> - Registration Free (CLE available, at cost). Click on the individual days to register, and create an account to register. The promo code is NOCLE26.

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Symposium Day 1, Thursday March 31 (ZOOM)
Lawmaking, Legal Activism, and the Third Reconstruction.
11AM-1:00 PM EST
This panel explores the process of constitutionalisation and the expansion and protection of constitutional and statutory rights in America. The panel will look to the First and Second Reconstructions as touchstones for contextualizing rights-based struggles in America today. Through the lens of voting rights reform, panelists will highlight the historic and modern role of youth leadership in democratization, and the gains and struggles inherent in the process. The panel will consider the potential for a Third Reconstruction in the 21st Century as the nation works to secure voting rights and election reform despite disinformation, violence, and campaign finance deregulation.

Panelists include: Reverend Cornell Brooks, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy and Divinity Schools, Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, former President/CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and former President/CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice; Professor Charisa Kiyô Smith of CUNY School of Law, whose work will be published in the resulting symposium issue; and Evan Malbrough, Andrew Goodman Foundation former student ambassador and current Board Member, and Founder of the Georgia Youth Poll Worker Initiative.

Moderating the discussion is Professor Aderson B. Francois, Professor of Law and Director of the Institute for Public Representation Civil Rights Clinic of Georgetown University Law Center, whose scholarly interests include voting rights, education law, and the history of slavery and Reconstruction.

The 26th Amendment: Ratification, Activism, and the Constitutional Amendment Process.
1:15-3PM EST
This panel will feature a live conversation with the original then-youth organizers and congressional aide who succeeded in amending the U.S. Constitution fifty years ago through ratification of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, thereby lowering the voting age to 18 and outlawing age discrimination in access to the ballot. Panelists will share their experiences on the process of constitutional ratification and the relevance of this historical feat today.

Panelists include: Jason Berman, Chief of Staff to Senator Birch Bayh, the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. During Jay’s 1976-1978 tenure with Sen. Bayh, his work included ratification of both the 25th and 26th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the effort to reform the electoral college, and passage of Title IX, and passage of the Copyright Act of 1976. Patricia Keefer, leader of the state and federal organizing effort to ratify the 26th Amendment, including via Common Cause. She is now the Director of the International Affairs Department with the American Federation of Teachers, and heads the organization’s human rights and labor rights advocacy worldwide, playing a leadership role in political and constitutional reforms in women’s rights, voting rights, and youth political participation in the U.S. and globally as well as democracy development projects in every region of the world. Yael Bromberg, Esq., is a lecturer at Rutgers School of Law in Election Law and the Political Process, legal scholar of the 26th Amendment, and Principal of Bromberg Law LLC. Professor Bromberg serves as Chief Counsel and Strategic Advisor to The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national organization in 25 states dedicated to making youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy.

The discussion will be moderated by current youth leaders and journalists Tamia Fowlkes and Shreya Bandyopadhyay of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Together, they host a podcast called Pod-Cast Your Vote, which aims to mobilize and empower youth voters.

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Symposium Day 2, Wednesday April 6 (ZOOM)
Reconsidering the 26th Amendment: Voting Age, Criminal Justice, and State Election Law
12:15-2PM EST
This panel explores issues related to voting rights at the state level. Panelists will offer a comparative analysis of state election law and the right to vote; state efforts to pre-register 16 and 17-year-olds in advance of turning 18; and municipal efforts to lower the voting age. The discussion will also consider the impact of state criminal statutes on youth voting rights, a relatively under-examined area of law and scholarship, within a larger context of how marginalized communities are deprived of the right to vote through criminal conviction.

Panelists include: Professor Joshua Douglas, prominent election law scholar and author of Vote for US: How to Take Back our Elections and Change the Future of Voting. Clinical Law Professor Cara Suvall, of the Vanderbilt University Law School Youth Opportunity Clinic. Laura Brill, founder and director of The Civics Center, appellate litigator, and former clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Moderating the discussion is Professor Jenny Diamond Cheng, whose research examines the boundaries between legal childhood and adulthood and has written extensively about the minimum voting age.

Symposium Day 3, Thursday April 7 (IN PERSON ONLY)
Litigating the 26th Amendment: Jurisprudence and the Path Forward
9-10:45AM EST
This panel will discuss the contours of voting rights and youth voting rights litigation today, the applicable standard of review that applies to these state and federal claims, various challenges legal advocates face in litigating these claims, and gains won through judicial relief and legislative advocacy.

Panelists include: Leah Aden, Deputy Director of Litigation at NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc. (LDF). Perry Grossman and Adriel Cepeda Derieux of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Voting Rights Project and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). Valencia Richardson, Equal Justice Works Fellow with the Campaign Legal Center and former youth voting rights organizer from Louisiana.

Moderating the discussion is Professor Yael Bromberg, a lecturer at Rutgers School of Law in Election Law and the Political Process, legal scholar of the 26th Amendment, and Principal of Bromberg Law LLC. Professor Bromberg serves as Chief Counsel and Strategic Advisor to The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national organization in 25 states dedicated to making youth voices and votes a powerful force in democracy.

Election Law and Youth Voting: The Role of Universities as Civic Actors.
11-12:45 PM
This panel will discuss the role of institutions of higher education in supporting student voter engagement. Joined by a team of student researchers, panelist Professor Gunther Peck of Duke University will share his pedagogical approach to teaching democracy and highlight how the provisional ballot system in North Carolina impacts students and deprives them of their right to vote. He will be joined by Vice Presidents of Bard College Jonathan Becker and Erin Cannon, who will discuss the role of colleges and universities in defending youth voting rights and democracy domestically and globally, in part based on their two-decades of experience defending voting rights of their students in Dutchess County, NY, most recently through securing an on-campus polling location, and through their work with colleges across the globe. Panelist Charles Imohiosen, Esq., President and CEO of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, will offer his experiences from the private and public sector, including as the former co-chair of the voting rights working group for an AMLaw 100 firm, and the current work of the Foundation on over eighty campuses across the nation.

Moderating the discussion is Professor Elizabeth Matto, Director of the Center for Youth Political Participation at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, drawing on her work as a teacher, scholar, and practitioner of democratic education and civic engagement.

Keynote Address Luncheon
1-2 PM
U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Ben Hovland will deliver a keynote address focused on election administration and youth voting. Commissioner Hovland will highlight the challenges facing youth voters today and describe his experiences administering a national election. From the rise of misinformation and disinformation to the National Voter Registration Act, Commissioner Hovland will explore the myriad of facets of youth voting in the United States, and preview an analysis of his forthcoming article in the symposium volume.

NJ Secretary of State Tahesha Way will deliver a keynote address centered on her experience administering elections in New Jersey. She will discuss how the Murphy administration protected ballot access for youth voters and voters of color. Secretary Way will highlight the methodology her team employed to achieve historic success during the 2020 election.

--
Yael Bromberg, Esq.
Principal, Bromberg Law LLC
Chief Counsel & Strategic Advisor, The Andrew Goodman Foundation (outside counsel)
Lecturer, Rutgers School of Law, Election Law & the Political Process
Read<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3442198>: Youth Voting Rights and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, U. Penn. J. Const. L. (2019)
Listen<https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/podcast/the-story-of-the-26th-amendment>: We The People Podcast, The Story of the 26th Amendment, with the National Constitution Center
Join<https://rutgerslawreview.com/symposium/>: Rutgers Law Review Symposium, Voting Rights Reform: The 26th Amendment, Youth Power, and the Potential for a Third Reconstruction  (April 2022)

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