Franita Tolson on Congress's Constitutional Authority Over Elections

In this episode, Franita Tolson, Professor of Law and Vice-Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, discusses her article "The Spectrum of Congressional Authority Over Elections," which is published in the Boston University Law Review. Tolson begins by explaining how overlapping constitutional authorization for Congressional regulation should affect the scope and strength of Congressional power. Specifically, she observes that the 14th Amendment and the Elections Clause both authorize Congressional regulation of elections, and argues that this overlapping authority should increase Congressional power to act. She criticizes the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder for failing to consider how the Elections Clause affects the constitutionality of Sections 4(b) and 5 of the Voting Rights Act. And she reflects on how her observations about multiple sources of constitutional authority might affect the analysis of the legitimacy of Congressional action in the election law context and elsewhere going forward. Tolson is on Twitter at @ProfTolson.This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.