Richard Hasen, author of A Real Right to Vote, Sarah Isgur, senior editor of The Dispatch, and Lawrence Lessig, author of How to Steal a Presidential Election, join Jeffrey Rosen for a health check on the state of American democracy. They look ahead to potential areas of vulnerability in the run-up to the 2024 election, and identify ways to strengthen our democratic processes in response. This program was streamed live on March 21, 2024, as part of our America’s Town Hall series.
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This episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Bill Pollock, and Tanaya Tauber. It was engineered by David Stotz and Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Samson Mostashari, Cooper Smith, and Yara Daraiseh.
Participants
Richard Hasen is professor of law and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, where he directs UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project. An internationally recognized expert in election law, he served in election law analyst for CNN in 2020 and NBC News/MSNBC in 2022. Hasen also writes the Election Law Blog. His books include Cheap Speech, Election Meltdown, The Voting Wars, and his most recently A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy.
Sarah Isgur is senior editor of The Dispatch, hosts the legal podcast Advisory Opinions, and frequently appears as a legal analyst on cable news. Prior to joining The Dispatch, Isgur served in the Justice Department as the director of the Office of Public Affairs, as senior counsel to the deputy attorney general, and on three presidential campaigns.
Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, a 2016 presidential candidate, and founder of Equal Citizens. He is the author of several books, including They Don’t Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy, Fidelity & Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution, America, Compromised, among many others. And his most recent book (with Matthew Seligman) is How to Steal a Presidential Election.
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 a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources:
- Richard L. Hasen, A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy (2024)
- Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman, How to Steal a Presidential Election (2024)
- National Constitution Center’s We the People podcast, “The Supreme Court Says States Can’t Keep Trump Off the Ballot," (March 7, 2024)
- Sarah Isgur and David French, “Indictment Watch: The Supreme Court Decides Whether States Can Disqualify Trump,” Advisory Opinions, The Dispatch (March 5, 2024)
- Richard L. Hasen, “The Supreme Court Just Delivered a Rare Self-Own for John Roberts,” Slate (March 5, 2024)
- Conference Report, “Carter-Baker Commission: 16 Years Later” (2021)
- Amicus brief of Richard L. Hasen, Edward Foley and Ben Ginsburg, Trump v. Anderson
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