Election 2020 in the Courts

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the 2020 election quickly approaches, the Supreme Court issued two key rulings on state election laws this week—ruling 5-3 in Merill v. People First of Alabama to prevent counties from offering curbside voting in Alabama, and, in Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar, upholding Pennsylvania’s extension of its mail-in ballot deadline by a 4-4 vote. This episode recaps those rulings, explores other key election-related cases before courts around the country, and explains the constitutional dimensions of legal battles over voting including why and how a court decides when state laws rise to the level of disenfranchisement or not. Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine and co-host of Slate’s podcast “Political Gabfest”, and Bradley Smith, professor at Capital University Law School who previously served on the Federal Election Commission, join host Jeffrey Rosen. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and welcome to We
0:07.9	the People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:11.2	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase
0:16.4	awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:21.3	As the election approaches, the U Supreme Court issued two recent rulings on
0:25.9	state election laws. On Wednesday, the court ruled five to three to stop counties in Alabama from offering curdside voting and earlier this
0:36.6	week the court upheld Pennsylvania's extension of its mail-in ballot deadline by a
0:41.5	split 4-4 vote.
0:44.4	On this week's episode, we'll explore
0:45.8	the constitutional basis behind those two ruling
0:48.4	and other key election rulings
0:50.4	so that we understand the constitutional parameters that the US Supreme Court is using to evaluate these election rulings.
0:59.0	I'm honored to be joined by two of America's leading experts on voting rights who have been closely following the litigation.
1:06.9	Emily Baselon is a staff writer at the New York Times magazine and is the Truman
1:11.1	Capote fellow for creative writing in law at Yale Law School.
1:14.4	She's also the co-host of Slate's podcast Political Gadfest and the author of the award-winning book,
1:20.0	Charged. Over the summer, she joined me for a great constitutional class on elections in America,
1:25.8	which listeners can check out at the link in this episode's resources page.
1:30.3	Emily, it's wonderful to have you back on the show.
1:32.6	Thanks so much.
1:33.4	I'm really glad to be here.
1:35.3	And Brad Smith is chairman and founder of the Institute for Free Speech and the Josiah
	...

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