Tennessee Voices, Episode 279: James Blumstein, Vanderbilt Law School professor
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The 50th anniversary of a landmark voting rights case recently passed in March. The decision enfranchised newcomers to Tennessee and changed the law.
In Dunn v. Blumstein, decided on March 21, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the state's one-year residency requirement for citizens to qualify to vote in elections was unconstitutional and "not necessary to further a compelling state interest."
The man behind the challenge was James Blumstein, at the time, a new professor at Vanderbilt Law School and a New York transplant to the Volunteer State.
On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, Blumstein, an American legal and health scholar who still teaches at Vandy, talked about the Dunn challenge and about his career, which also includes serving for 40 years as a program leader of Leadership Nashville.
We also spoke about voting rights in general, gerrymandering and how COVID-19 changed the way college professors teach students.
He also continues to practice law, such as representing the Davidson County Election Commission in a case involving a proposed anti-tax referendum in Nashville.
Among his many other community activities include serving on the Tennessee Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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About Tennessee Voices
The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
Please email your ideas for future guests to me at dplazas@tennessean.com. Thank you for watching.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: Celebrating voting rights case with James Blumstein
