Don’t miss a timely conversation exploring key controversial and contested elections throughout American history—including 1800, 1860, 1876, and 2000—and what we can learn from them as we approach Election Day. Election scholars James Ceaser of the University of Virginia, Edward Foley of The Ohio State University and author of Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, Robert Lieberman of Johns Hopkins University and author of Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy, and Franita Tolson of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, join moderator Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, to discuss.
This program is presented in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Participants
- James Ceaser is Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1976. He has written several books on American politics and political thought, including Presidential Selection, Liberal Democracy and Political Science, Reconstructing America, and Nature and History in American Political Development. Ceaser has held visiting professorships at the University of Florence, the University of Basel, Oxford University, the University of Bordeaux, and the University of Rennes. He is also the co-author of Defying the Odds: The 2016 Elections and American Politics, a frequent contributor to the popular press, and he often comments on American Politics for the Voice of America.
- Edward Foley holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at The Ohio State University, where he also directs its election law program. His new book is Presidential Elections and Majority Rule and he is also the author of Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States. Foley wrote Due Process, Fair Play and Excessive Partisanship: A New Principle of Judicial Review of Election Law, which was cited in briefs in two recent Supreme Court gerrymandering cases. Foley is a reporter for the American Law Institute’s Project on Election Administration and co-hosts an election themed podcast, Free and Fair with Franita and Foley.
- Robert Lieberman is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy, co-authored with Suzanne Mettler. He is also the author of Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State and Shaping Race Policy: The United States in Comparative Perspective, and the the co-editor of Democratization in America: A Comparative-Historical Analysis, Beyond Discrimination: Racial Inequality in a Postracist Era, and The Oxford Handbook of American Political Development. Lieberman is a co-convenor of the American Democracy Collaborative.
- Franita Tolson is Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs and professor of law at University of Southern California Gould School of Law. Tolson has written for or appeared as a commentator for various mass media outlets. She has testified before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. She has also authored a legal analysis for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Richard Durbin, that would explicitly protect the right to vote. Tolson currently works as an election law analyst for CNN and co-hosts an election themed podcast, Free and Fair with Franita and Foley.
- Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Resources from the Program
Presidential Elections and Majority Rule, Edward Foley
Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, Edward Foley
Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy, Suzanne Mettler and Robert Lieberman
Elections Clause Explainer by Frantia Tolson and Michael Morley, Interactive Constitution
VIDEO: For Debate: Should the Electoral College Be Abolished? with James Ceaser and Jesse Wegman
PODCAST: Should We Abolish the Electoral College? with James Ceaser and Alex Keyssar
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