We are grateful for your continuing in the tradition. The great dean of the law school, long ago, author vanderbilt once said reform is not for the shortwinded. That is a tradition we take on here. Hopefully not tonight. Grateful for you being here as we launch the discussion of my new book; the fight to vote this book represents the Brennan Center for justice. We are partly a communication hub, think tank and group devoted not to the specifics of Justice Brennan and his Juris Prudence but taking his ethos that the law above all else must respect dignity and the constitution must be understood as a charter for each generation. We are able to take this charge. We are 20 years now at the law school. We are in the fight on Voting Rights, money in politics, the drive to end mass incarceration and so many things. This book reflects that. I am asked a lot why do this book now . Why do this book now . This is without question one of the most challenging moments for our democracy in many years. We know that this is a crazy, topsy turvy election with anger at the system manifesting itself in all kinds of ways in many directions. This election we will see 16 states with now voting laws designed to make it harder to vote for the First Time Since the jim crow era in effect in a high turn out president ial election. This will be the first president ial election since the United StatesSupreme Court gutted the civil rights act. It an election where the consequences of Citizens United and other misguided decisions by the Supreme Court are beginning to be felt more and more especially at the level below the presidency. In the last election, voter turn out dropped to the lowest level in seven decades. There are pressures on our democracy of a kind we have not seen for a long time. There are pressures on the question of whose Voice Matters and whether the right to vote is a meaningful theme we have not seen in a long time. The question i wanted to ask in writing this book was was it always this way . How does this moment compare to the past . What is a usable and learnable history we can draw from . Here is what i found todays controversy and fights are intense and controversial and consequential. But they are not new. This fight to vote has been at the heart of American Life from the beginning. It is a debate that has been at the center of american politics, including elections, from the beginning. The fight to vote didnt start this year or last year. It didnt start 50 years ago at selma. It has been going on for 240 years from the beginning. It has been raw, rowdy and partisan at every step of the way. It has always been about more it has always been about more than just the formal rules of who can cast the ballot. It is entangled with the role of wealth, money, class, race and the many ways politicians and their friends and allies have figured out to rig the rules from the beginning to benefit their cause or side. What was that beginning . How does that story start . The book starts with Thomas Jefferson in philadelphia in the heat of the revolution writing the declaration of independence and the preamble. We know this is a time of interaction. He wrote memorable that government was only legitimate if it rested on the consent of the governed. He wrote that while being attended to by a slave. A 14yearold slave boy, bob hemming, Sally Hemmings brother. The contradictions were present at the very moment. At that time, the colonies and america was nothing but a democracy. The colonist as they rebelled against britain but the rules were fixed to vote you had to be a white man who owned property. A certain amount of property in the middle ages. But the revolution began to break that certainty or the idea you needed the consent of the government began to take on a life of its own and during the revolution even there was a debate about this. Benjamin franklin led a working mans revolt in pennsylvania. One of the only times there was an actual in the street pitch fork yielding mob in the American Revolution demanding the right to vote for all men regardless of whether they owned property. Franklin said today a man owns a jackass worth 50 and he is entitled to vote but before the next election the jackass dies and the man cant vote. Who is the right of the suffrage . The man or the jackass . He may not have said jackass but that was the quote. Throughout every step of the history, while some americans demanded their voice at the table and the right to expand democracy, others fought to hold them back then and now. John adams was a gast at the idea of expanding the right to vote to men without property. He was urged to do this in massachusetts and he said it a terrible idea. Women will demand to vote and lads will think they are right and everyman will demand an equal voice. John adams said there will be no end of it. And he was right. That is a pretty good prediction of what happened over the next two centuries. The next break, i will talk longer now my watch is no longer on the podium. The first breakthroughs were on the role of wealth. The same debates we are having over Citizens United now. The rule to break the idea you needed to be a Property Owner in order to vote. It was a move to enfranchise white men without property and affect the working class. It was led not by citizen movements but by canny, suave political insiders like Martin Van Buren in new york. One state senator said i bet i can get van buren to give a straight answer. He said mr. Van buren does the sun rise in the east . And he said i am not awake that early so i cannot say. He won the right to vote without owning property. John roanoke fought against adding to the voting roles and his model was he said i am an ari aris aristocrat and i hate liberty but want equality. The United States was the most profound democracy and there were mass Political Parties with really high voter turnout. Democraci democracies were a fad and people understood more people were left out. The next breakthrough was during and after the civil war. A war when hundreds of thousands of africanamericans served the union army and in fact when lincoln gave his inaugural address, his great second inaugural, a large part of the audience were africanamericans in uniform. Lincoln was opposed to Voting Rights for africanamericans. But in his first stab at reconstruction, he dissen franchised former slaves but he began to change. Two days after the surrender of the South Lincoln gave his first speech, his big speech about what we wanted to have happen during reconstruction from the second floor window of the white house and he said, you know, i have been criticized on this voting issue. People have criticized me and my plans for not enfranchising the former slaves and i now agree. I think people who served in the uniform or educated should be able to vote and he gave indication he would go further. One member of the audience understood this. John wilkes booth and he gasped and said that means citizen. That is the last speech we will give. He tried to get the man standing next to him to shoot lincoln on the spot and when he said no he said i will do it. We know the tragedy of what happened next. The Republican Party, devoted to Voting Rights as it has been more than the democrats, pushed through the 15th amendment to give Voting Rights to the former slaves. It was a flowering of democracy in the south. Turnout rates among africanamerican men in the south approached 90 . Hundreds of africanamericans were in congress, legislature, and even as governor. But a violent response from the kkk ended that. We know there was a brutal crackdown on voting in the south. It didnt happen right away but by the end of the 19th century it had erased the gains and almost entirely disenfranchisement of africanamericans. The cities of the north were crowded immigrants from ireland, italy and france. Catholics. They succeeded in cracking down in votings by the new immigrants work class. John adams great grandson warned that universal suffrage only means a european and especially celtic proliitarian on the Atlantic Coast and african on the shares of the gulf and a chinese one in california. They passed a variety of rules that suppressed turnout among the working class in the north. This is important to understand not because you have walt whitman writing articles denouncing this but because it reminds us things can move backwards despite progress. You have a new factor as well. The massive flood of Campaign Money prom that guilded age. From the 1 of that gilled age. Democracy was reeling and moving backwards. What happened as the 20th century began . There was a period of reform and revitalization which we call the progressive area. It focused more than people realized on the question of the vote. They passed two constitutional amendments dealing with voting. The first was one of their version of Campaign Finance reform. The 17th amendment to give the vote to citizens for the United States senate because they felt the state legislatures were corrupt and in the pockets of the bidders at the time. Teddy roosevelt and others led these movements. But the other, which we often overlook as a significant response, is the part of their idea that you would deal with the now power of money with the vote was the 19th amendment. It is very easy as we think about women getting the right to vote. You look at textbooks. It is passed over. But it was every bit as fiercely fought, creative, and hard as later gains were. It is a story i learned in researching this. It is amazing to know so many of us dont know this story. Seneca falls happened in 1848 and that was when women first said we should have the right to note but not a lot happened after that. It wasnt until around 19101912 that young women, many of them gr graduate students who had been in england, came back and said we are going to try to pass a constitutional amendment. The day before his president ial inaugural, Woodrow Wilson got off the train in washington, d. C. , and nobody was there to greet him. The Princeton Glee Club was there to greet him and that was about it. The New York Times made up a statement saying what they lacked in numbers and wilson said where are all the people . They were told they were down on pennsylvania avenue. 5,000 women were marching for womens suffrage in a remarkable parade, many in proposerous costumes. Leading that parade, on a white horse, dressed in the costume of a greek godess and carry a banning was a dazzling woman who was a recent graduate of nyu school of law. A labor lawyer and agitator who has a professorship named after her until recently. Holland was on the horse, and 5,000 women behind her, and lining pennsylvania avenue a 100,000 men, many of them drunk. The men started throwing things, broke through the lines, they assaulted the woman, a hundred woman were fought to the hospital, they fought their way to the end. It was a huge deal as you can imagine. The police chieff of washington, d. C. Had to resign. It dominated the coverage of the inaugural and Public Opinion swung in support of suffrage. It was just like selma five years later. But it took hunger strikes, pickets and advocating, before wilson, whose Political Base was the south, till wilson backed womans suffrage and the 19th amendment happened. Al ally the leaders of the movement we dont know them. The 20th century was a time of continued democratic expansion. The great instance when the courts finally got involved and setup the standard you needed one person one vote all culminating with the great triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights act. You know that story. You have seen it in movies and the recent movie selma. The story is more complex than you might imagine. Dr. Martin luther king proclaims in selma we will bring a voting bill on the streets in 1965 and it was the pressure of those activist willing to risk their lives and safety that forced the National Government to act. But it was this elaborate dance between two leaders; king and johnson. I write about it at length in the book. They would meet repeatedly. Johnson would say look, i am for Voting Rights but not yet. Not right now. We have to pass the great society. King would push. Johnson would get worked up and tell king how important it was the pass Voting Rights and king would try to talk about the political benefits that would come if they would. Johnson was drafting the Voting Rights act and never told king. King was preparing to match at selma and never told johnson. You know the violence televised at the bridge and the revoltion that followed johnson standing up and telling congress we shall overcome and the change in the south then. Voting rights soared immediately after that and the end of the poll tax and the votes going to 18 year olds and new laws dealing with Campaign Finance. It seemed like the basic rules of american democracy were set for a long time. Then the last 15 years have seen a change. The last 15 years have seen new pressures as i said in the beginning of a slide back to the point where i feel strongly we are at a potential Tipping Point where things could go wrong. What happened . As i said in some areas it has been progressive and some areas conservatives. There is a policy to restrict voting and the rules of democracy in a way we have nat seen in a long time. They take their cue from something said by a man named paul wire. He was among other things he founded the Heritage Foundation and forded the american lenl slateive exchange council. And in a key moment in 1980 with Ronald Reagan speaking to the evangelical as the modern conservative coalition formed he said look, i want to be clear, we dont want everybody to be able to vote. We do worse when everybody is able to vote. That has become the mantra, spoken or unspoken, that has guided way too much of recent activity. In 2011, a screening about voter fraud and as a factual matter to kind of voter impersonation is showing that you are more likey to be killed by lightning that commit voter fraud in the United States. 24 new laws were passed making it harder to vote for the First Time Since the jim crow era. I am for voter id but i am not for requiring id voters dont have. The law in texas, which is being challenged and declared illegal by several courts, in texas you cannot use your university of texas id as a government id but you can use your concealed carry gun permit. What coinisedence. And we have seen laws amplified when the Supreme Court enters. I was surprised to learn the court stayed out of the whole fight over democracy. That is why we had so many constitutional amendments. During john robert and the time of Justice Antonin Scalia this court was activist on case after case and you know one of the most significant was Shelby County which gutted the hearts of the Voting Rights act and was reflected, he didnt write it, but reflected the spirit that justice scalia, articulated during the argument when he said the Voting Rights was merely quote a racial entitlement. You can hear the gasp on the tapes we have from that recording. The texas law was rushed through in two hours after the shelby decisions. Other courts as well. On top of this, the Supreme Court created a situation where money, as it did in the late 1800s, speaks so loudly it risks the power of the vote. We have had jerry mandering and both parties do it. Citizen unit d, a small handful of doners have transformed Campaign Finance. In the last election, the top 100 donors gave more than the other 4. 75 million small donors combine. That is the level of con pp krshc concentration of political money we have not seen since the days of jp morgan. Why am i finding myself surprisingly energized by the moment . There is more agitation and concern and wide understanding of the ways in which the system is broken than we have had in a long time. The book talks about this. In this election, we have candidates from all over the place addressing these issues whether it is Bernie Sanders talking about Campaign Finance reform being a central issue to donald trump with all things he is doing saying he is the only candidate on the republican side who can not be bought by contributions to gladly endorsing the person who wrote all of the Voter Suppression laws out of kansas. Hillary clinton putting forward the most detailed and in many ways plans for voting reform and Campaign Finance reform than any major candidate has put forward in years. This is on the electorates mind and therefore on the president ial candidate mind. The biggest change that can