In support of the Election Law Program, a Joint Project of the National Center for State Courts and the William and Mary Law School
Resolution 2: In support of the Election Law Program, a Joint Project of the National Center for State Courts and the William and Mary Law School
WHEREAS, the number of election law disputes being brought before the state courts has increased dramatically in recent years, often requiring immediate resolution by judges who may be unfamiliar with the basics of election law; and
WHEREAS, in response to that trend, in 2005 the National Center for State Courts and the William and Mary Law School established an Election Law Program dedicated to producing concise and accessible educational material for judges assigned to hear election disputes; and
WHEREAS, with funding from the Deer Creek Foundation, the Election Law Program created a highly regarded set of resources for judges, including an online video lecture series taught by prominent election law scholars and litigators, a comprehensive election law manual, a DVD compilation of the lectures, the manual, and other resources, and three national symposia on key issues in election law; and
WHEREAS, those resources were made available to judges nationally through the Election Law Program and the ABA's online Election Law Center; and
WHEREAS, the Election Law Program is embarking on a new series of activities designed to further promote the timely resolution of election litigation;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Conference of Chief Justices supports the efforts of the William and Mary Law School and the National Center for State Courts to:
- Update the manual, video, and other resources and expand their scope to include campaign finance law, recusal, and voter fraud;
- Convene a task force to collect and analyze the data necessary to identify the underlying causes of increased election litigation, with the purpose of starting a national conversation about that increase; and
- Engage the Election Law Program Advisory Board, consisting of judicial and election law leaders, to help plan and prepare for the 2012 elections.
Adopted as proposed by the Board of Directors at the Conference of Chief Justices 2010 Midyear Meeting.