Skip to main
University-wide Navigation
Josh Douglas photo
Location
College of Law
Phone
(859) 257-4935
Email
joshuadouglas@uky.edu

Professor Joshua A. Douglas teaches and researches election law and voting rights, civil procedure, constitutional law, and judicial decision making. He is the author of Vote for US: How to Take Back our Elections and Change the Future of Voting, a popular press book that provides hope and inspiration for a positive path forward on voting rights. His next popular press book, The Court v. The Voters: The Troubling Story of How the Supreme Court Has Undermined Voting Rights, will be published in 2024.

His most recent legal scholarship focuses on the constitutional right to vote, with an emphasis on state constitutions, as well as the various laws, rules, and judicial decisions impacting election administration.  He has also written extensively on election law procedure.

Professor Douglas has published in top journals, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Penn Law Review OnlineVanderbilt Law ReviewWashington University Law ReviewGeorge Washington Law ReviewWilliam & Mary Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, and the Election Law Journal, among others. His article Procedural Fairness in Election Contests was a winner of the 2011-12 SEALS Call for Papers, and he has been cited extensively in major law review articles and case books in the field.

He is also a co-author of an Election Law case book (Aspen Publishers second edition 2021) and a co-editor of Election Law Stories (Foundation Press 2016), which tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the major cases in the field. In addition, his media commentaries have appeared in the New York TimesCNN, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, Reuters, PoliticoThe AtlanticHuffington Post, and Slate, among others, and he has been quoted in major newspapers throughout the country. He appeared live on CNN on Election Day 2016.



Further, he was the founder and initial Chair of the AALS Section on Election Law.

Prior to joining UK, Professor Douglas clerked for the Honorable Edward C. Prado of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced litigation at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Professor Douglas earned his J.D. from George Washington University Law School, where he was an articles editor on the GW Law Review.

Specialties

  • Election Law
  • Voting Rights
  • Constitutional Law
  • Civil Procedure
  • Judicial Decision Making

Courses

  • Law 822 Constitutional Law II
  • Law 921 Election Law
  • Law 962 Kentucky Law Journal
  • Law 840 Supreme Court Decision Making
  • Law 815 Civil Procedure I
Books & Book Chapters
  • Vote for US: How to Change the Future of Voting and Take Back Our Elections (Prometheus Books 2019).
  • Election Law Stories (Joshua A. Douglas & Eugene D. Mazo eds., Foundation Press 2016).
  • The History of Voter ID Laws and the Story of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, in Election Law Stories (Joshua A. Douglas & Eugene D. Mazo eds., Foundation Press 2016). 
  • Regulation of Federal Elections and Regulation of State Elections, in Encyclopedia of American Governance (MacMillan 2015).
  • Election Law and Litigation: The Judicial Regulation of Politics (Aspen 2014, second edition 2021) (with Edward B. Foley & Michael J. Pitts).
  • The Court vs. The Vote: Ten Cases That Destroyed American Democracy

    (Beacon Press forthcoming 2024) 

  • Establishing Justice, Securing the Blessings of Liberty: Why Civic Duty Voting Is Constitutional in One Hundred Percent Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting (E.J. Dionne and Miles Rapaport, authors) (New Press 2022) (co-author of this chapter) 

  • Elections as Duels: “You Know What? We Can Change That! You Know Why? ‘Cuz We Have the Support of Two-Thirds of Each House of Congress and Three Quarters of the States!”in The Law of Hamilton: An American Musical (Cornell University Press 2020). 

  • Lowering the Voting Age from the Ground Up: The United States’ Experience in Allowing 16-Year-Olds to Votein Lowering the Voting Age to 16 – Learning from Real Experiences Worldwide (Palgrave Macmillan 2020). 

Scholarly Articles

Scholarship is available for download at Joshua A. Douglas's Scholars@UK page.

  • State Constitutions and Youth Voting Rights, 74 Rutgers University Law Review  ____ (forthcoming 2022). 
  • “How the Sausage Gets Made”: Voter ID and Deliberative Democracy 100 Nebraska Law Review 376 (2021). 

  • Undue Deference to States in the 2020 Election Litigation, 30 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 59 (2021). 

  • Bring the Masks and Sanitizer: The Surprising Bipartisan Consensus About Safety Measures for In-Person Voting During the Coronavirus Pandemic, 55 Georgia Law Review 1585 (2021) (with Michael A. Zilis) 

  • The Loch Ness Monster, Haggis, and a Lower Voting Age: What America Can Learn from Scotland,

    69 American University Law Review 1433 (2020) (symposium issue). 

  • Congress Must Count the Votes: The Danger of Not Including a State’s Electoral College Votes During a Disputed Presidential Election, 81 Ohio State Law Journal Online 183 (2020) (Election Law Roundtable Edition).  

  • Precedent, Three-Judge District Courts, and the Law of Democracy, 107 Georgetown Law Journal 413 (2018) (with Michael Solimine).
  • A Voice In The Wilderness: John Paul Stevens, Election Law, and A Theory of Impartial Governance, 60 William & Mary Law Review 335 (2018) (with Cody Barnett).
  • The Right to Vote Under Local Law, 85 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1039 (2017).
  • Local Democracy on the Ballot, 111 Nw. U. L. Rev. Online 173 (2017), http://www.northwesternlawreview.org/online/local-democracy-ballot.
  • A Pivotal Moment in Election Law, 104 Ky. L.J. 547 (2016).
  • In Defense of Lowering the Voting Age, 165 U. Pa. L. Rev. Online 63 (2016).
  • A Checklist Manifesto for Election Day: How to Prevent Mistakes at the Polls, 43 Fla. St. L. Rev. 353 (2016).
  • State Judges and the Right to Vote, 77 Ohio St. L.J. 1 (2016).
  • To Protect the Right to Vote, Look to State Courts and State Constitutions, 9 Advance: The J. of ACS Issue Briefs (Fall 2015), at 21, available at https://www.acslaw.org/publications/advance/9/1.
  • A Formal Recognition of Our Field, 14 Election L.J. 239 (2015).
  • (Mis)Trusting States to Run Election, 92 Wash. U. L. Rev. 553 (2015).
  • The Right to Vote Under State Constitutions, 67 Vand. L. Rev. 89 (2014).
  • Election Law Pleading, 81 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1966 (2013).
  • Procedural Fairness in Election Contests, 88 Ind. L.J. 1 (2013).
  • The Foundational Importance of Voting: A Response to Professor Flanders, 66 Okla. L. Rev. 81 (2013).
  • Discouraging Election Contests, 47 U. Rich. L. Rev. 1015 (2013).
  • Election Law and Civil Discourse: The Promise of ADR, 27 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 291 (2012).
  • Enlivening Election Law, 56 St. Louis U. L.J. 767 (2012).
  • Book Review, To HAVA, and Beyond!, 12 Election L.J. 233 (2013) (reviewing Martha Kropf & David C. Kimball, Helping America Vote (2011)).
  • The Procedure of Election Law in Federal Courts, 2011 Utah L. Rev. 433 (2011).
  • The Significance of the Shift Toward As-Applied Challenges in Election Law, 37 Hofstra L. Rev. 635 (2009).
  • The Voting Rights Act Through the Justices’ Eyes: NAMUDNO and Beyond, 88 Tex. L. Rev. See Also 1 (2009).
  • Is the Right to Vote Really Fundamental?, 18 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 143 (2008).
  • Note, A Vote for Clarity: Updating the Supreme Court’s Severe Burden Test for State Election Regulations that Adversely Impact an Individual’s Right to Vote, 75 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 372 (2007).
  • When is a “Minor” also an “Adult”?: An Adolescent’s Liberty Interest in Accessing Contraceptives from Public School Distribution Programs, 43 Willamette L. Rev. 545 (2007).
Advocacy
Back to Tabs