Class Examines Legal Battles of the 2024 Campaign

As Election Day nears, the 2024 presidential campaign may soon find its way into courtrooms across the country.

The legal questions that arise from the process of conducting elections are the subject of a course offered this fall at the University of Virginia School of Law.

The class — Litigating the 2024 Presidential Election, taught by Professor Daniel Ortiz, an expert on electoral law — takes a nonpartisan approach to legal analysis of the most compelling and important cases relating to the current campaign.

While election law comprises a vast array of constitutional and statutory issues, such as campaign finance regulations, apportionment and many others, the students in Ortiz’s course are focusing on litigation stemming from the administration of elections and the laws that govern these procedures.

Ortiz, the Michael J. and Jane R. Horvitz Distinguished Professor of Law, recently discussed his experience with the class and the key issues he and his students have covered so far as they take a deep dive into the legal landscape of the 2024 campaign.

Election law can cover a wide range of issues. Can you explain how you narrowed the focus of this course and what the key elements of election administration were that you wanted to address?

We’re looking at cases arising in the so-called “battleground states” and a few others, including Virginia. We followed and analyzed, for example, the dispute over whether Virginia can remove registered voters suspected of being noncitizens from the rolls within 90 days of the election. Some of the litigation is similar across the states but much is different because election laws differ so much from state to state. Much of our work focuses on registration, early and postal voting, and whether local authorities have the power not to certify the results of an election. We’ve had a few curve balls, though. Hurricane Helene, for example, created issues we never predicted.

What are some of the unique challenges pertaining to understanding and practicing election law that you and your students have discussed this term?

Most people don’t think of the time pressures inherent in these kinds of cases. Some go in a matter of weeks, if not days, from a decision by the trial court to disposition by the U.S. Supreme Court. Several times the students have reported on a case decided a day or two before only to have an appellate court issue an opinion on it during class. This area of law moves fast around election time!

While some cases have made national headlines over the years, how extensive is election-related litigation that the public may not hear about?

Nearly 300 cases have been filed so far this year. That’s a lot. Unless you’re a real election-law nerd, as my students and I are, you’ve not heard about most of them. Only a few are “big” enough to make national media.

What are some of the key legal issues specific to this current campaign that you and your students have been watching and will be monitoring over the coming days and weeks?

We’ve been closely watching the controversy in Georgia over the new rules the state election board has passed since the summer. So far, the Georgia courts have struck them all down. These rules concern, among other issues, whether election officials can refuse to certify the results of an election and whether poll workers have to hand-count all ballots.

Unlike some classes that look back on cases retrospectively, your students are exploring these legal questions as they are playing out against the backdrop of an ongoing campaign. What are the benefits, and challenges, to this approach?

The students get to see the law in action and the law on the ground. That’s very different from your standard doctrinal class. They also see how law responds to varying political conditions across the states and how law can become lawfare. In election law, lawsuits not only reflect politics but can change how people think about politics and enable political actors to do things that they otherwise would find difficult to do.