Congressional Representation for D.C. Residents Focus of Feb. 21 Conference
The William & Mary Election Law Program will convene leading election law practitioners, scholars, and politicians in Washington, D.C., on February 21 for a program titled "Rethinking D.C. Representation in Congress."
"This symposium draws together a group of highly prestigious thought leaders to re-ignite the question of Congressional representation for residents of the District of Columbia" said Rebecca Green, Co-Director of the Election Law Program at William & Mary.
After a brief welcome and introduction at 8:45 a.m., three panel sessions will follow. The first will begin at 9 a.m., moderated by Jeff Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center. This session will examine a U.S. Constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote for all citizens. Professor Heather Gerken (Yale Law), Professor Richard Briffault (Columbia Law), The Hon. Kenneth Starr (Baylor), and the Hon. Jamin Raskin (Washington College of Law) will round out the panel.
The second panel, to begin at 10:05 a.m., will look at the constitutionality of specific proposals for D.C. congressional representation. This panel features Professor David Fontana (George Washington Law), Professor David Schleicher (George Mason Law), the Hon. Mary Cheh (George Washington Law), and Wade Henderson (The Leadership Conference). Jonathan Cedarbaum, who was on the leadership team of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, will moderate.
The final panel, to examine the political realities of D.C. representation, will feature the Hon. Tom Davis, former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives and author of several bills to secure representation for D.C. residents and Robert Bauer of Perkins Coie, former White House Counsel to President Obama.
The symposium will take place at 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., in the Root Room at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Click here for the event flyer.
The event is RSVP-only (space is limited), and is free and open to members of the press. Registration is required by clicking here. The flyer, event schedule, and participants' biographies can be found on the conference website.
The conference is sponsored by William & Mary's Institute for Bill of Rights Law and DC Vote. Papers from the symposium will be published in the Fall 2014 edition of William & Mary's Bill of Rights Journal.