I’m looking forward to participating in this (registration required):

• Race, Reconstruction and Voting Rights
  October 13th, 5:30 PM EST
• The Constitution explicitly excluded African Americans and Indigenous People from Constitutional protection, and the Bill of Rights—drafted by the First Congress as the first ten Amendments to Constitution and enacted in September of 1789—did nothing to correct that. Extending Constitutional protections and rights to Black people fell to later Amendments, what are often called “the Reconstruction Amendments.” But the reality is that African Americans have been impeded in the free exercise of their right to vote—by state laws, federal court decisions, and the resistance of their fellow citizens. This, despite passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, fully a century after the Civil War ended, and subsequent legislation protecting Black Americans and other disenfranchised populations that passed only with significant political resistance. In 2013, in Shelby County v Holder, the Supreme Court struck down key requirements of this legislation, reasoning that it was no longer responsive to current conditions. The panel will discuss this long history of efforts to suppress Black voting, its impact on other minority voting, and challenges to voting rights that are a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Moderator: Jami Floyd
• Well-known as the local host of “All Things Considered” and Legal Editor in the WNYC Newsroom, Jami Floyd is now leading WNYC’s new Race& Justice unit that covers news through the prism of race, class, and social justice. With a degree from Berkeley Law School, Ms. Floyd taught law at Stanford Law School before embarking on a journalism career that spans two decades and has included stints at ABC News, CBS News, and Court TV. She has appeared as a legal and political analyst on many news outlets including CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, and PBS.
• Panelists:
  • Vanita Gupta is President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalition. Previously Gupta was Acting Assistant Attorney General and head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division where she served as the nation’s chief civil rights prosecutor. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Gupta served as Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she launched the Smart Justice Campaign to end mass incarceration.
  • Richard Hasen is a Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. A nationally recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation, he was named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal in 2013. His newest book, Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy was published earlier this year. Professor Hasen’s previous books include Voting Wars, Plutocrats United, and The Justice of Contradictions.
  • Rina Shah is Managing Director of Red Fort Strategies, a government relations and public affairs strategic consulting firm that specializes in activating the Asian-American community. Her expertise is in building political and issue advocacy campaigns at every level as well as offering strategic guidance to a wide-range of domestic and international corporations, including start-up ventures, which seek to navigate the legislative and executive branches of U.S. government. Ms. Shah served as a senior aide to two Republican Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and is a frequent media commentator.
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