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Professor Heather Gerken: Yesterday, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released the results of a national study of election practices. Created in the wake of the 2000 presidential election, the commission is charged with improving how elections are run. Unfortunately, Congress gave the new agency a modest mandate, little money, and less clout.

The following story is from the September 2005 issue of Harvard Law Today: This summer, while some classmates in New York and Boston drafted briefs or finalized memos in high-rise office buildings, the 28 Harvard Law students selected as 2005 Chayes Fellows encountered entirely different challenges.

Dean Elena Kagan gave her annual "state of the school" address in Ames Courtroom this week to mark the beginning of the academic year. Click here to watch an archived webcast of the address.

A Boston Globe op-ed by HLS Professor Philip Heymann and Kennedy School lecturer Juliette Kayem -- and HLS graduate -- on congressional reauthorization of the Patriot Act.

On April 20, 2005, George W. Bush signed into law a bankruptcy bill that had been pending in Congress for eight years. More than just a giveaway to the credit-card companies, the bill was a moral judgment against the bankrupt.

This fall, Congress will begin debating whether to renew one of the most powerful, and controversial, civil rights laws ever passed: Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Section 5 requires certain state and local governments--mostly in the Deep South--to ask the federal government's permission before making any change, no matter how small, in the way they run elections.

On Saturday, September 17, Sen. Barack Obama, a member of the class of 1991, will deliver a keynote address following his acceptance of the Harvard Law School Association Award. The event is part of this weekend's Celebration of Black Alumni and will be webcast live at approximately 12:30 p.m.

Professor Mary Ann Glendon writes: At first glance, it is hard to see why these side-glances at what other countries do have provoked such alarm. True, the references have increased somewhat, but they remain rare, and no one suggests that the court has directly based any of its interpretations of the Constitution on foreign authority.

This weekend, Harvard Law School will hold its second Celebration of Black Alumni. Highlights of the three-day event include a keynote address by Sen. Barack Obama, a 1991 Harvard Law graduate, and speeches by Harvard President Lawrence Summers and Law School Dean Elena Kagan. Hundreds of alumni are expected to return to campus for the event.

Today, Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify in support of chief justice nominee John Roberts, a member of the class of '79, regarding Roberts' qualifications for the position. In his service as the chair of the practitioners’ reading committee, Fried examined Roberts' previous decisions to evaluate Roberts for the Standing Committee on the Judiciary of the American Bar Association.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice will hold its official launch at Harvard Law School on Thursday, September 15. Speeches and ceremonies will be webcast live.

The work of Professor Robert Clark, a corporate law specialist and the 10th dean of Harvard Law School, was the focus of a major symposium this past weekend at the University of Iowa College of Law. The nation's leading corporate law experts convened for two days of panel discussions and presentations that focused substantially on Clark's landmark treatise, "Corporate Law," which was first published in 1986.

On Tuesday, September 13, three leading legal scholars from Harvard Law School will come together to discuss the Senate hearings of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts '79 and the role of the Senate in the judicial confirmation process. Professors Charles Fried, Alan Dershowitz and Richard Fallon will speak at the panel discussion sponsored by the HLS Federalist Society.

“People are rightly concerned that [the Supreme Court decision, in Kelo v. City of New London] will give cities license to take private homes just…

The following op-ed by Assistant Professor Jed Shugerman, Revisiting the Senate's 'nuclear' option, originally appeared in The Boston Globe on September 12, 2005: A second opening on the Supreme Court raises the stakes for the Senate hearings and doubles the chances of the Senate going "nuclear": The Senate Democrats filibuster, the Republicans vote to change the rules for closing debate, and the Democrats grind the Senate to a halt.

George W. Bush has lost his favorite Supreme Court Justice. No, Antonin Scalia has not quietly resigned. (Does Scalia quietly do anything?) And yes, Bush does like to say that Scalia is his favorite Justice. But I have a sneaking suspicion his heart beats faster for William Rehnquist.