2020 promises to be a historically momentous year for the rule of law over authority in the United States. It is the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment and the sesquicentennial of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment and enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1870. It is also a presidential election year within the historical period that European political scientists Anna Lührmann and Staffan I. Lindberg have demonstrated empirically to constitute the third wave of autocratization—the substantial de facto decline of the core institutional requirements for electoral democracy, which in contrast to earlier waves, mainly affects democracies with gradual setbacks under a legal façade. Experts in the jurisprudence of the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments, civil rights law and history, critical outsider jurisprudence, election law, and the social struggle to re-enfranchise returning citizens will share their perspectives on the situation in 2020 and discuss their latest research projects and teaching innovations.
Business meeting at program conclusion.