The End of the Beginning -- Getting in Gear at IFES
Hi everyone! Welcome back to week 3 at IFES! Pretty standard week here, but it's really starting to warm up and DC summer is going to be in full swing soon!
This week at IFES, I finished editing my initial research for the Election Judgments database. I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, but the broad range of cases I’ve come across and the different (and yet similar) legal systems I’ve gotten to comb through have started to shape a new lens for me to view much of the American legal system I’ve studied. When I was an undergrad here at W&M, I was able to do an undergraduate thesis on transitional justice and post-conflict reconciliation (the subject was the "Russel Tribunal" during the Vietnam War, for any interested readers) that dipped my toe into this field. However, diving into the deep end of international democratic law has continued to challenge my own ideas about the necessary conditions for thriving democracies. Having only studied the American legal system, I believe it can become very easy to assume that whatever instutional guardrails we have to protect our own system of government are necessary and sufficient to protect it. However, looking at examples of dedicated constitutional courts, or election management bodies with significantly more power than ours here in the U.S., provides interesting food for thought: is the way we practice and protect democracy the best way to do so?
But, back to work at IFES. The next big step – which will likely cover much of the summer as well – is getting this mass of cases briefed for the database. The previous intern, Mark Wilson (link his blog), helped last summer and, as a result, you can find cases categorized by any sub-issue of election law that’s currently hosted – when candidates cannot post on social media before an election, rules on absentee ballots, etc.
Another exciting project I’m getting to help with is IFES’ 2024 U.S. Election Program (USEP). Over the past few years, the Supreme Court has issued (and declined to issue) a slew of opinions related to gerrymandering, mail-in ballots, early voting, and other issues. One of the biggest recent cases, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, seemed to set an incredibly high bar for anyone bringing suit on the grounds of racial gerrymandering. I’ll be briefing this (and other recent gerrymandering cases) to prepare for the event, which takes place in November. There's sure to be more coming from the Supreme Court!
I'm expecting to finally hit a "groove" here at IFES over the next few weeks, so I'm excited to go more in-depth with you all about my work and share more of the DC adventure now that everything's settled!
See you next week!
Hank