If postmortems of the 2016 US presidential election tell us anything, it’s that many voters discriminate on the basis of race, which raises an important question: in a society that outlaws racial discrimination in employment, housing, and jury selections, should voters be permitted to racially discriminate in selecting a candidate for public office? In the book Whitelash: Unmasking White Grievance At The Ballot Box, Terry Smith argues that such racialized decision-making is unlawful and that remedies exist to deter this reactionary behavior. Using evidence of race-based voting in the 2016 presidential election, Smith deploys legal analogies to demonstrate how courts can decipher when groups of voters have been impermissibly influenced by race, and impose appropriate remedies. This groundbreaking work should be read by anyone interested in how the legal system can re-direct American democracy away from the ongoing electoral scourge that many feared 2016 portended. At this CLE experts in voting rights, employment law, and political science will discuss the insights from Whitelash and what it all means for Voting Rights Law and the coming election. In honor of the late Terry Smith, free copies of Whitelash shall be provided to a select number of student attendees.
SPEAKERS
Matt Gallaway
Senior Editor, Cambridge University Press
Christina Greer
Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University
Darren Hutchinson
Associate Dean for Faculty Development, University of Florida School of Law
Audrey McFarlane
Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Development, Dean Julius Isaacson Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Janai Nelson, Esq.
Associate Director-Counselor, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
MODERATOR
Professor Tanya K. Hernández
Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
CLE Credits are available: CLE credit for the program is approved in accordance with the requirements of the New York State CLE Board for a maximum of 1.5 non transitional credits: (1.5) diversity, inclusion and implicit bias.
This event is presented in conjunction with the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, Center on Race, Law & Justice, Fordham Black Lawyers Association and Fordham Law Advocates for Voting Rights.