
Independent State Legislatures and Presidential Elections: Addressing Misconceptions About Current Law and Prospects for Reform
There are misconceptions about the Independent State Legislature theory and how it interacts with existing election law.
Counsel
Genevieve Nadeau leads our team focused on securing accountability for abuses of power and violations of the rule of law, using a combination of strategic litigation, policy advocacy, and communications. She is also an expert on the Electoral Count Act and presidential elections and led policy development for the National Task Force on Election Crises during the 2020 election. In addition, Genevieve is a lecturer at Harvard Law School, where she co-teaches the Democracy and the Rule of Law clinic and related seminar. Genevieve previously served at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, where she held several leadership roles, including Chief of the Civil Rights Division; at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and in private practice. She is a graduate of UMass Amherst and Stanford Law School.
There are misconceptions about the Independent State Legislature theory and how it interacts with existing election law.
Whether the lawsuit is ultimately successful, Vindman’s concern is an important one. Elected officials — and certainly presidents — shouldn’t be able to use the power of their office to threaten or retaliate against witnesses who testify truthfully in official proceedings. Genevieve Nadeau of the nonprofit Protect Democracy is one of Vindman’s lawyers. “It’s important to understand this is a case of witness intimidation and obstruction of justice that is well outside the bounds of what’s fair game in any sort of normal, even ugly politics,” Nadeau told me.
Defeating authoritarianism is going to take all of us. Everyone and every institution has a role to play. Together, we can protect democracy.
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