As a former student of Prof. Obama's (though the class was titled a
little differently, IIRC), I have to concur.
Along these lines, a few months ago Sen. Obama introduced S. 1975, the
Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2005, which
would make it unlawful "for any person to knowingly deceive another
person regarding the time, place, or manner of an election . . . or the
qualifications for or restrictions on voter eligibility for any such
election, with the intent to prevent such person from exercising the
right to vote in such election." It provides for a private right of
action as well along those grounds, and requires the Assistant Attorney
General to act on such complaints.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S1
2531&dbname=2005_record
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From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Rick
Pildes
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 2:10 PM
To: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
Subject: Sen. Obama and the Voting Rights Act
Listmembers might be interested to know that Senator Obama's deeply
thoughtful and knowledgable comments about the Voting Rights Act (quoted
by Rick Hasen) renewal issues are not just those of an exceptionally
smart and serious politician. Sen. Obama also taught a course on "The
Law of Democracy" as an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago
Law School. As other users of our casebook know, it includes extensive
material on the Voting Rights Act, including on the issues raised by
Section 5 of the Act, which Sen. Obama's comments addressed. Partly
because of his underappreciated stint as a professor in this field, and
partly for other reasons, Sen. Obama thus had considerable knowledge
about voting rights and election-law issues before he entered the
Senate.
Richard Pildes
Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School, Feb-June 2006
phone: 617-496-7353
fax: 617-496-4863
Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law Co-Director, NYU Center on
Law and Security NYU School of Law 40 Washington Sq. So. NYC, NY 10012
phone: 212 998-6377
fax: 212 995-3662