U.S. Election Laws

"This clearly written handbook brings together a great deal of information about fundamental political rights in this country and will be of interest well beyond the legal community." Reference Books Bulletin

This up-to-date collection of essays addresses key elements of the law and politics of voting rights: the Supreme Court's jurisprudence, the impact of the Voting Rights Act, and the opportunities for enhanced minority representation posed by alternative electoral systems.

""The Longest Night provides a comprehensive and insightful look at our country's most fascinating election. The contributions from political insiders are utterly absorbing. Sharply written and edited; an impressive collaboration."--Susan Estrich, author of "Sex and Power

"Arthur Jacobson and Michel Rosenfeld have provided a very important civic service. Their collection of commentaries on the disputed presidential election of 2000 brings all the confusion and frenzy of that event into clear intellectual focus. On one level it documents the most lively and informed reaction to the legal aftermath of the election. But it does more. It contains a range of erudite and well-reasoned interpretations, not just of the law and court decisions, but also of political institutions, the constitutional history, and the election itself."--Mary P Ryan, author of "Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City during the Nineteenth Century

"The great strength of this book is its inclusion of international perspectives on the American presidential debacle of 2000. After reading the insights of commentators and scholars from France, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, it becomes clear precisely why, like an aging Humpty-Dumpty, our patchwork set of elitist assumptions, idiosyncratic practices, and archaic democratic institutions came tumbling down in Florida. It is too late simply to put Humtpy-Dumpty back together again. "The Longest Night reminds us that the United States has much to learn from those countries that are boldly advandcing the future of democracy and leaving us in their dust."--Lani Guinier, coauthor of "The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy

Was slavery over when slaves gained formal emancipation? Was it over when the social, economic, & political situation for African Americans no longer mimicked the conditions of slavery? If the Thirteenth Amendment abolished it in 1865, why did most of the disputed points during the Reconstruction debates of 1866-75 concern issues of slavery? In this book Pamela Brandwein examines the post-Civil War struggle between competing political & legal interpretations of slavery & Reconstruction to reveal how accepted historical truth was established. Delving into the circumstances, assumptions, & rhetoric that shaped the "official" story of Reconstruction, Brandwein describes precisely how a dominant interpretation of events ultimately emerged & what its implications have been for twentieth-century judicial decisions, particularly for Supreme Court rulings on civil rights. While analyzing interpretive disputes about slavery, Brandwein offers a detailed rescoring of post-Civil War legislative & constitutional history, including analysis of the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment. She identifies the perspectives on Reconstruction that were endorsed by the Supreme Court, as well as those that were rejected. Explaining what it meant-theoretically & practically-to resolve these debates with a particular definition of slavery, Brandwein recounts how the Northern Democratic definition of "ending" slavery was not the only definition, just the one that prevailed. Using a familiar historical moment to do new interpretive work, Brandwein renders a sociology of constitutional law, showing how subjective narrative construction can solidify into opaque institutional memory. Offering a fresh approach to the subject of original intent, Reconstructing Reconstruction will interest legal historians & scholars of constitutional law, American history, race & ethnicity, political theory, & the sociology of law.

If some members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have their way, they will mandate free television for federal candidates.