Courts, Campaigns, and Electoral Politics

Session Submission Type: Virtual Created Panel

Session Description

While judicial scholars recognize that courts are part of a larger political landscape, the legitimacy of courts is often derived from the perception that they are neutral, nonpartisan arbitrators. These competing tensions can conflict during electoral cycles, where courts are sometimes forced to determine election outcomes, the rules of the game, and who is eligible to participate. This panel investigates political party attention to courts during electoral campaigns, voter support for legal change, the presence of movement lawyers in election administration, and judicial review of a presidential election in Ghana. This panel thus highlights the many connections between courts, judges, lawyers, and voters and the various methodological and theoretical approaches undertaken by law and courts scholars.

Sub Unit

• Division 26: Law and Courts

Individual Presentations

• Democrats, Republicans, and Judges: How U.S. Parties Use the Courts in Campaigns - Lisa M. Holmes, University of Vermont

• Electoral Expectations and Support for Constitutional Change - Eileen Braman

• Movement Lawyering in the 2020 Election - Courtney Chenette, Hollins University

• The Politics of Judicial Review of Elections in Africa - Christopher Appiah- Thompson, The University of Newcastle, Australia

Chair

• Terri Peretti Santa Clara University

Discussants

• Terri Peretti Santa Clara University

• Brent D. Boyea University of Texas at Arlington