Five Questions with Douglas Keith, Deputy Director of the Judicial Program at the Brennan Center
We used to live in a world where we didn’t really think about state supreme courts in other states—I’d hazard a guess that a lot of people didn’t pay much attention to their own. But now, they’re incredibly important, and nowhere more so than when it comes to the role they play in handling election challenges. We all got a stark lesson in just how important that was when Elon Musk tried to buy a state supreme court race in Wisconsin.
Tonight, we’ll spend our time together learning about state supreme court races. Douglas Keith is the Deputy Director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He’s an expert on those elections and also on the outsized spending that goes on in them.
If you want more after reading his fascinating answers tonight, he has a State Court Report just out that focuses on Montana, Michigan, North Carolina, Washington, Ohio, and retention elections in some other states. Read below for Doug’s assessment of why these races matter, why we need to pay attention to ones other than in our own states, and what’s going to matter the most this November.
“Five Questions” is a Friday feature for paid subscribers, built around the conversations that don’t fit into a news cycle driven by headlines and hot takes. It’s a chance to spend time with the people shaping the law, politics, and democracy—and to ask the questions that matter most, not just the ones everyone else is asking. Keeping the daily legal analysis free has always been important to me, and it will stay that way. These Friday conversations give me a chance to thank paid subscribers for their help ensuring that Civil Discourse remains available to everyone who wants to follow the law beyond the day’s headlines. Whether you’re a paid subscriber or a free subscriber, I’m grateful you’re here.