Episode 17: Entangled: Race, Politics, and Post-Callais America

Guy-Uriel Charles is the Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he also directs the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice. Along with a coauthor, he’s also working on a book that focuses on the past and future of voting rights. He was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. Rick Hasen is Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, and he also directs the Safeguarding Democracy Project. He is an expert on election law, and is the author of A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy. We discuss Section 2 of the Voting Rights, and the aftermath of the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision. OTHER LINKS --"House Majority Leader William Lamberth cannot answer several questions from Rep. Jesse Chism (D)," from YouTube --Louisiana v. Callais (et al.), Supreme Court opinion, decided April 29, 2026 --"Pathological racism, chronic racism, & targeted universalism," (2021) by Guy-Uriel Charles and Luis Fuentes Rohwer, in the California Law Review --Social dominance, (1999) by Jim Sidanius & Felicia Pratto, Cambridge University Press --Wikipedia summary of Rucho v. Common Cause --"Callais confusion, power-sharing, and the inevitability of proportional representation," (2026) by Guy-Uriel E. Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Michael Latner & Carlos Algara, in the Yale Law Journal --Wikipedia summary of proportional representation --A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy, (2024) by Rick Hasen, Princeton University Press --the Safeguarding Democracy Project website MUSIC CREDITS (all songs from Free Music Archive, and each song carries the "cc by" license) --"The Trail," by Unheard Music Concepts --"Monsters of the past," by Pawel Feszczuk --"Funky end," by Pawel Feszczuk --"Caress me to sleep," by ruiSpecial Guests: Guy-Uriel Charles and Rick Hasen.