Wednesday, July 29, 2020
10:00 – 11:30 AM | Hacking Democracy: Elections and Beyond
Sponsored by: ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security
Cosponsored by: Division for Public Education
Democracy is not inevitable. Right now, US democratic institutions are under tremendous stress as Americans struggle to hold them accountable to live up to our aspirations. Foreign adversaries also exploit and exacerbate the fissures and lack of public trust in institutions and processes, from elections to the justice system, while capitalizing on opportunities to engage in cyber assaults. Diverse strategies of disinformation, such as hack-and-leak or deep fake videos, often couched as news stories, amplify weaknesses and divisions of our own making to convince Americans to give up on rule of law and ideas of justice and democracy. This showcase program will explore digital threats against the U.S. democratic system, the current U.S. readiness to counteract these threats, and the way forward to protect our national security from hacking and disinformation.
Moderator:
Harvey Rishikof, Senior Counselor, ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security and Senior Advisor, ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, Washington, DC
Speakers:
Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, California Supreme Court, San Francisco, CA
Hon. James E. McPherson, Under Secretary, Department of the U.S. Army, Arlington, VA
Suzanne Spaulding, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); former Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate; Liaison, ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, member and former Chair, ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security, Washington, DC
Friday, July 31
1:00 – 2:30 PM | The Power of Women in U.S. Elections
Sponsored by: Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice
Cosponsored by: Senior Lawyers Division; Section of Dispute Resolution; Section of Dispute Resolution’s Women in Dispute Resolution Committee; Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law; Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section; Center for Public Interest Law; Standing Committee on Election Law; Coalition on Racial & Ethnic Justice; Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division; Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities; Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession; Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division; Standing Committee on Election Law; Criminal Justice Section; Division for Public Education; Commission on Women in the Profession; Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress
This panel will address voter suppression, election protection, and voting rights reform strategies ahead of the November 2020 election. Strategies to reform the right to vote have historically been intended to protect and advance the voting rights of underrepresented communities. Some recent reforms, however, have sparked controversy. Same-day voter registration and restoration of the right to vote to formerly incarcerated citizens, for example, tend to increase the population of citizens who exercise their civic duty to cast a ballot. Other policies, such as highly partisan redistricting, voter purges, and voter identification policies, have the effect of suppressing or devaluing the votes of underserved and underrepresented citizens. The impact of these reforms falls heaviest on women, communities of color, low-income communities, voters with disabilities, and young voters. On this 100th Anniversary of the 19th amendment, panel members will explore the effects of efforts to curtail voting, focusing on the role of women, especially African American women, in seeking to exercise the right to vote and the influence of their votes on elections.
Moderator:
Angela J. Scott, J.D., LL.M., Chair-Elect, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice; Civil Rights Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the General Counsel; Former Member of the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee, 10th District
Speakers:
Barbara Arnwine, President & Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition; President Emeritus, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Congressman James E. Clyburn, Majority Whip, third-ranking Democrat in the United States House of Representatives, South Carolina
Gilda Daniels, Associate Professor, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD
Harmeet Dhillon, Co-Chair, Republican National Lawyers Association; Republican National Committeewoman for California, and founder, Dhillon Law Group, San Francisco, CA
Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Los Angeles, CA