Joshua Sellers
Photo: Annette Hornischer

Associate Professor of Law, Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Mercedes-Benz Fellow - Class of Fall 2022

Joshua Sellers is an associate professor of law at Arizona State University, where he focuses on election law, legislation and regulation, constitutional law, and civil procedure. Sellers received his BA in political science and Afroamerican and African studies from the University of Michigan, and his JD and a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago, where he served as articles editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Before entering teaching, Sellers was a law clerk to Judge Rosemary Barkett of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and a litigation associate at Jenner & Block LLP in Washington, DC. His articles have been published in the Penn Law Review, NYU Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and elsewhere. Sellers’ forthcoming contribution to The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (2023) is entitled “Political Parties and Primary Elections.”

Project Description

The Law of Democracy and Racial Equity

In his Academy project, “The Law of Democracy and Racial Equity,” Sellers will examine the relationship among election-law doctrines, electoral structures, policies, practices, and racial equity. “Racial equity,” he writes, “is defined here as political, economic, and social environments in which people, regardless of race, enjoy the same core entitlements and prospects for personal fulfillment.” Accordingly, achieving racial equity requires initiatives that combat the racial maldistribution of resources and opportunities. The success of such initiatives is inextricably linked to the law of democracy, Sellers argues, yet such linkages are largely neglected by scholars. “Law of democracy scholars, while attentive to race, are preoccupied with traditional rights/remedies frameworks,” he writes. “By contrast, non-legal scholars—historians, economists, sociologists, political scientists—are deeply engaged with the nuances of racial discrimination, yet lack expertise on the law of democracy.” Sellers’ book project aims to bridge these disciplinary divides in order to locate the racial consequences of the law of democracy. He has identified the closest methodological analogue to his project in political science research on comparative electoral systems: Arend Lijphart’s groundbreaking work on the effects of Germany’s mixed-member proportional representation election system. While in Berlin, Sellers plans to further study the German election system and research scholarly work on comparative electoral systems for theoretical and methodological insights that will strengthen his own research.

Academy Activities

12 Oct 22
Constructing the Right to Vote Law

Mercedes-Benz Lecture

Constructing the Right to Vote

In this talk, Joshua Sellers illustrates how voting is, in his words, “reactive” -- directed and defined by some who seek to limit the right rather than by those who advocate for it.

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12 Oct 22

Constructing the Right to Vote

The right to vote is foundational to American democracy. It depends, however, upon the government’s ability to build, fund, and administer election systems that work. These obligations are not ancillary but rather central to the right to vote. In this talk, Joshua Sellers illustrates how voting is ...

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