Michael Weingartner L’21 recently published “Remedying Intimidating Voter Disinformation Through § 1985(3)’s Support Or Advocacy Clauses” The Georgetown Law Journal Online. Weingartner originally wrote the paper for the Remedies seminar at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School taught by Adjunct Professor of Law, the Honorable Wendy Beetlestone L’93, District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Adjunct Professor of Law, the Honorable Stella Tsai L’88, Judge for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; and Lecturer in Law Shelley Smith.
In Weingartner’s article, he argues that because Section 1985(3) “provides for compensatory and punitive damages along with several procedural advantages for victims of conspiracies to prevent voters from giving their ‘Support or Advocacy’ to federal candidates,” those bringing voter intimidation claims “should embrace the clauses as a potentially powerful weapon against modern-day voter intimidation.”
Weingartner credited the law school’s support in getting the article published.
“I never would have submitted the paper for publication were it not for the encouragement I received from my professors and the assistance of the library staff.” he said. “It meant a lot to me, as a recent graduate, to have that kind of support .
His strong interest in election law and voting rights was honed at the Law School in coursework, externships, and participation in student groups.
“I took Election Law with [Lecturer in Law] Jason Abel L’03 and a Voting Rights seminar with [Lecturer in Law] Deuel Ross L’09,” Weingartner said. “I also spent a semester externing for the Department of Justice in the Voting Rights section and a summer working with the Campaign Legal Center and was a member of the Democracy Law Project since I was a 1L. All of this helped shape my thinking about voting rights and voter suppression efforts, so I knew going into the Remedies seminar that I wanted to focus on this topic in a paper.”