June 10, 2017

Voting Rights Institute Training


2017 ACS National Convention

J. Gerald Hebert

Campaign Legal Center
Begin: 0:01

Julie Fernandes

Open Society Foundations
Begin: 26:53

Leah Aden

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
Begin: 52:05

Justin Levitt

Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
Begin: 1:20:06

The Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder effectively nullified a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the most effective civil rights law ever enacted. As a result, attorneys and activists play a key role working with voters to protect their rights against discriminatory voting laws.

The Voting Rights Institute, a project of ACS, the Campaign Legal Center and Georgetown University Law Center, has trained approximately 1,000 lawyers and law students nationwide. This training included an overview of voting rights legislation and case law, examples of the ways in which state and local governments are infringing upon the right to vote and information for attendees who want to identify obstacles to voting and how to fix them.