B.A., Wellesley College
M.Phil., Oxford University
J.D., Harvard Law School
Election Law
Sports and Inequality
Race and the Law
Education Law
Civil Procedure
Professor Jocelyn Benson is currently an Assistant Professor of Law at Wayne State University Law School. She also serves as the founder of the Richard Austin Center on Election Law and Administration, and is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law. Her forthcoming book, entitled Democracy and the Secretary: the Crucial Role of State Secretaries of State in Promoting Democracy, will highlight the crucial role that a state’s chief election administrator plays in the electoral process and illustrate how Secretaries from either side of the political spectrum are making significant contributions to promoting democracy.
Professor Benson joined the faculty at Wayne State in 2005, after serving as a law clerk to Judge Damon J. Keith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. During the 2004 Presidential election, after serving as the Assistant to the National Field Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential campaign, Benson was hired to help develop the first nationwide Election Protection program for the Democratic National Committee. Benson selected, recruited, and trained Voter Protection coordinators in 21 states. The program resulted in deployment of over 17,000 trained election law lawyers.
Since 2004, Benson and has developed and supervised two statewide nonpartisan election protection efforts in Michigan. During the 2008 election, she was called to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, regarding the illegality of the use of foreclosure lists to challenge voters’ eligibility on Election Day. She is a frequent commentator on voting rights and election law on several local news and radio broadcasts.
Professor Benson graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College, where she founded the now-annual Women in American Political Activism conference and was the first student to be elected to serve in the governing body for the town of Wellesley, the Town Meeting. She subsequently earned her Masters in Sociology as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, conducting research into the sociological implications of white supremacy and neo-Nazism. She received her J.D from Harvard University Law School, where she was a general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. During her time at Harvard Law, Professor Benson also worked as the Voting Rights Policy Coordinator for the Harvard Civil Rights Project, a non-profit organization that sought to link academic research to civil rights advocacy efforts.
Professor Benson has also worked as a summer associate for voting rights and election law for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, as a legal assistant to Nina Totenberg at National Public Radio, and as an investigative journalist for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL.
Voter Fraud or Voter Defrauded? Highlighting Courts’ Inconsistent Approach to Election Fraud, HARVARD CIVIL RIGHTS-CIVIL LIBERTIES LAW REVIEW (forthcoming 2009).
Section 203: Language of Minority Assistance Provisions of the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 2006, in America Votes! (Ben Griffith ed. 2008)
Developing Uniform Standards for Partisan Involvement in Election Administration, in America Votes! (Ben Griffith ed. 2008)
Representative Equality: Constituencies & Districting International Election Principles, in The Rule of Law in Democratic Elections (Jack Young ed. 2008)
One Person, One Vote: Protecting the Franchise Through the Effective Administration of Election Procedures, 40 URBAN LAW, 305 (2008)
Democracy and the Secretary: The Crucial Role of State Election Administrators in Promoting Accuracy and Access to Democracy, ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY PUBLIC LAW REVIEW (2008)
“Voting Rights” in Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution (David Schultz, ed.). NY: Facts on File, Inc, 2008.
Towards Full Participation: Solutions for Improvements to the Federal Language Assistance Laws, 2 Advance – JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL SOCIETY (2008)
Election Fraud and the Initiative Process: A Study of the 2006 Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, 34 FORDHAM URBAN LAW JOURNAL 887 (2007) (invited submission).
Su Voto Es Su Voz! Incorporating Limited English Proficient Voters into American Democracy, 48 BOSTON COLLEGE LAW REVIEW 251 (2007).
Towards Full Participation: Solutions for Improvements to the Federal Language Assistance Laws, an Issue Brief published by the American Constitution Society (August 2007).
Manual on Michigan Election Law and Campaign Finance Reporting Requirements, Alliance for Justice (November 2007)
Promoting Equal Opportunity and Access to the Vote for Citizens with Limited English Proficiency, Legal Journal Op-Ed, (September 18, 2007).
Language Protections for All? Extending and Expanding the Language Protections of the Voting Rights Act in Democracy, Participation and Power: Perspectives on Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, Berkeley Public Policy Press (2006).
Preparing for 2007: Legal and Legislative Issues Surrounding the Reauthorization of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 67 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH LAW REVIEW 125 (2005).
Note: Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Making Georgia v. Ashcroft the Mobile v. Bolden of 2007 39 HARVARD CIVIL RIGHTS-CIVIL LIBERTIES LAW REVIEW 485 (2004).
Democracy Spoiled (with Professor Christopher Edley, Jr., et al), Harvard Civil Rights Project (2002)
Sanchez Defeats Dornan in California’s 46th District Race (with Dr. Christina Fastnow), in The Road to Congress 1998 86-102 (Sunil Ahuja and Robert Dewhirst, eds., 1999).
- May 4, 2009
Jocelyn Benson delivered the morning keynote address at the Michigan League of Women Voters conference on Voting and Election Law. (Click here for part II of keynote address.) - April 20, 2009
Jocelyn Benson will serve as the guest speaker at the Ann Arbor Community Center's 2nd annual Dinner and Dance on April 24, 2009. This gala will be held at the AACC, with the theme "Changing Lives and Transforming Communities since 1923." Hundreds of youth, from low to moderate income families have benefited from the Summer Day Camp and much of the proceeds will go toward this effort. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Ann Arbor Community Center, (734) 662-3128. - April 16, 2009
Jocelyn Benson will be a featured speaker at the Promoting Michigan Voter Power conference at Henry Ford Community College on April 24, 2009. The conference is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Michigan (LWVMI) and HFCC. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness about election-related issues and discuss ways to make voting easier and reduce the influence of special interests in elections. - October 15, 2008
Jocelyn Benson testified Joint oversight hearing on "Federal, State, and Local efforts to Prepare for the General 2008 Election" at the request of the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and the House Administration's Committee Subcommittee on Elections on Sept.. 24 in Washington, D.C. - September 5, 2008
Jocelyn Benson served as a featured panelist at the Detroit Emerging Leaders Forum on July 31, 2008, speaking on Election Administration issues in Michigan in 2008. On July 30, she was a guest on Jack Lessenberry's show, Michigan Radio (http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/On July 26, she served as a panelist at the Judicial Candidates and Election forum, sponsored by the Michigan Judicial Caucus, in Troy, Michigan.On July 23, she presented research on "The Social Effects of Democratic Engagement of Language Minority Communities: Developing Ownership, Accountability, and Stakeholders of Linguistic Minorities in a Democracy," at the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, located at Monash University Centre, Prato, Tuscany, Italy.On July 18, she presented commentary entitled "Language and Difference in a Democracy - Universal Engagement in Linguistically Diverse Democracies," at the Sixth International Conference on the Humanities, held at Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey. From June 24-25, she participated in a roundtable discussion on election reform sponsored by the Midwest Democracy Network in Minneapolis, Minn.On June 18, she led a discussion entitled "Democracy, Language, and Diversity: Developing a Voice for Language Minority Communities," at the Eighth International Conference on the Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, at the University of Montréal in Montreal, Canada.On June 13, she was a featured speaker at the Gamaliel National Conference, where she presented research on "State Constitutions, Litigation, and the Fundamental Right to Education," at Cobo Hall in Detroit. On June 4, she presented a paper entitled "Education as a Fundamental Right in a Diverse Society," at the Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Learning, at the University of Illinois, Chicago.On May 28, she served as a Panel Organizer and Participant for a roundtable discussion on "Law and Democracy in a Multilingual Society," at the Annual Law and Society Conference in Montreal, Canada.On May 24, she ran the Bayshore Marathon in 3 hours and 31 minutes, qualifying to run the Boston Marathon in April 2009. - March 11, 2008
Jocelyn Benson was invited to write and publish a piece entitled "One Person, One Vote: Protecting the Franchise Through the Effective Administration of Election Procedures" In THE URBAN LAWYER (a publication of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law). She served on a Panel on State Efforts to Promote Election Reform and Access to the Vote, Moderator, American Constitution Society and the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. (Feb. 25, 2008). She served as a panelist to address "The Crucial Role of State Election Administrators in Promoting Democracy," at the Norman Amaker Public Interest Law Conference, Indiana University Law School (Feb. 23, 2008). She addressed "Martin Luther King, Jr. and The Future of Voting Rights," as part of the Penn State Dickenson School of Law Speaker Series on Preserving King's Legacy, Lecture, State College, PA. (Feb. 22, 2008). She was interviewed in a segment called "Am I Right?" for Detroit Public Television (discussing the accusations of perjury against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick) on Jan. 25, 2008. She was interviewed by Patty Satalia for Pennsylvania Inside Out, WPSU TV, on Feb. 22, 2008. - February 6, 2008
Jocelyn Benson spoke on Jan. 27, 2008, at the APIA Vote Norman Y. Mineta Leadership Institute conference in Dearborn. Her speech was entitled "Major Voting Rights and Election Reform Issues Facing the APIA Community in 2008." She spoke on Feb. 2, 2008, on a judicial panel in Washtenaw County with former Attorney General Candidate Amos Williams on the current status of standing issues in the Michigan Supreme Court. She will speak on Feb. 8, 2008, at the national Mid-Year Meeting of the American Bar Association on a panel entitled "Modern American Election Law and Voting Rights," cosponsored by Section of State and Local Government Law, Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education. - November 8, 2007
Jocelyn Benson was the recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award from the Duke University Talent Identification Program (Sept. 1, 2007) She and Professor Robert Sedler were interviewed for an hour-long segment on Jury Diversity issues in Wayne County on Detroit Today, WDET/Michigan Public Radio. (Sept. 18, 2007) The American Constitution Society published an issue brief that she authored entitled "Towards Full Participation: Solutions for Improvements to the Federal Language Assistance Laws." The issue brief was distributed to over 50,000 members of the ACS Voting and Democracy initiative and is available at: http://www.acslaw.org/c21/voting (Sept. 12, 2007) She published an Op-Ed in the Daily Journal (www.dailyjournal.com), the most widely read legal journal on the West coast. The Op-Ed was entitled "Promoting Equal Opportunity and Access to the Vote for Citizens with Limited English Proficiency." (Sept. 27, 2007) - April 4, 2007
Jocelyn Benson was invited to author a chapter on International Standards for Political Representation and Participation in the book International Election Principles: The Rule of Law in the Democratic Elections, to be published by the American Bar Association in December 2007. On March 4, Professor Benson served as a panelist at the WSU Center for Citizenship Conference on Race and Citizenship, presenting a version of her forthcoming Boston College Law Review article, Su Voto Es Su Voz: Incorporating Voters of Limited English Proficiency into American Democracy. From March 11 to March, with funding from the Izumi Fund, Professor Benson sponsored a trip to Atlanta and Montgomery, Alabama for students enrolled in her Election Law and Race and the Law courses. Eight students went on the trip. One half of the trip was spent meeting with lawyers at the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Equal Justice Initiative who work on death penalty litigation, suits against white supremacist organizations, and various anti-discrimination cases. The second half of the trip was spent touring parts of Alabama and Georgia that were relevant to the civil rights movement, including a journey along the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights trail and a visit to the Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. The purpose of the trip was to offer students the opportunity to interact with lawyers currently working on civil rights litigation and to provide a view into the realities of the events that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On March 15, Professor Benson submitted an entry on Voting Rights for the Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution to be published by Facts on File, Inc. in 2008. - February 21, 2007
Jocelyn Benson was recently recruited to contribute two chapters to an upcoming "Election Law Handbook," to be published in March 2008. Other authors will be Thurgood Marshall, Jr. and former Virginia Attorney General Jack Young. Her chapters will cover "Uniform Standards for Partisan Involvement in Election Administration: the Role of the Lawyer-Citizen and Voter-Advocate" and "The Language Minority Assistance Provisions of the Voting Rights Act." In December 2006, Professor Benson was appointed to serve on the Racial Justice Advisory Council for the Michigan ACLU. She is currently drafting a memorandum for the council on the issues surrounding the creation of a legal right to education for students in the state of Michigan. On January 11, Professor Benson delivered Wayne State Medical School's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture, "MLK and the quest for voting rights," sponsored by the Black Medical Association. On January 22, she was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for Transportation Riders United, a non-profit organization advocating for improved public transit in the Detroit Metro area. On February 14, Professor Benson participated as a lecturer in the Wayne State Humanities Center Brown Bag Colloquium Series, speaking on the recent reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and the impending constitutional challenge to the Act. - October 30, 2006
Jocelyn Benson was invited by the Fordham Urban Law Review to author an article. The piece she is writing is tentatively entitled: "Voter Fraud or Voter Defrauded? Federal Courts and the Issue of Fraud in Elections," based on a talk she delivered on October 23, 2006 at Drake Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. The issue is set to be published in Fall 2007. On October 24, 2006, Professor Benson moderated a panel discussion in the Partrich Auditorium consisting of the six Wayne State law student research assistants she hired through work study this summer to examine and document the potential impact of Proposal 2, should it pass, on educational and economic opportunities in Michigan. The panel was sponsored by the Student Board of Governors and nearly 60 students and other community members attended the discussion. On October 25, 2006, Professor Benson addressed students at the University of Toledo Law School on "Election Protection: Issues in 2004 and Beyond" to a gathering of approximately 75-80 students. The lecture included a presentation of the themes and arguments in her article, "Su Voto Es Su Voz: Incorporating Limited English Proficient Citizens into American Democracy" Boston College Law Review (forthcoming 2007). Professor Benson completed the Detroit Free Press Marathon on October 29, 2006, in just over four hours. - October 9, 2006
Jocelyn Benson presented "The Current status of Civil Rights Laws and Litigation in 2006," for the panel on Eyes on the Prize and Modern-Day Civil Rights, Wayne State University Undergraduate College on September 27, 2006. She also spoke on "The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization of 2006 and Limited English Proficiency Voters," for the panel on the Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, Emory Law School, Atlanta, Georgia, on October 7, 2006. Professor Benson delivered a keynote address, "Voter Fraud or Voter Defrauded? Federal Courts and the Issue of Fraud in Elections," at Drake Law School, Des Moines, Iowa, on October 23, 2006. On October 25, 2006, she delivered a keynote address, "Election Protection: Issues in 2004 and Beyond," at University of Toledo Law School, Toledo, Ohio. Her article, "Su Voto Es Su Voz: Integrating Limited English Proficient Citizens into American Democracy," is forthcoming later in 2006 in the Boston College Law Review. - September 18, 2006
Jocelyn Benson recently completed two publications - one law review article and one chapter in a forthcoming book: Preparing for 2007: Legal and Legislative Issues Surrounding the Reauthorization of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 67 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 125 (2006). Language Accommodations for All? Extending and Expanding the Language Protections of the Voting Rights Act, in DEMOCRACY, PARTICIPATION AND POWER: PERSPECTIVES ON REAUTHORIZATION OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT (forthcoming Fall 2006 by the Berkeley Public Policy Press). She delivered two invited presentations: The Annual Conference of the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) (September 18, 2006), and she co-authored an accompanying paper entitled What Local Government Counsel Needs to Know about the 2006 Amendments to the Voting Rights Act, H.R. 9: Bilingual Interpreters, Foreign Language Ballots & Strengthened Preclearance Requirements (with Benjamin E Griffith); and The Warren Institute of Boalt Law School, University of California, Berkeley, where she delivered a lecture and presented accompanying written remarks on "Appropriate Language Accommodations under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act" before an audience of approximately 250. (February 9, 2006). She was recently appointed to serve on the following boards:Standing Committee on Election Law, The American Bar Association (3 year appointment);Board of Directors, Mobilizing America's Youth (2 year appointment); andPresident's Commission on Women, Wayne State University She also supervised the research and production of three studies, completed by seven work-study students at Wayne State University Law School, into the potential legal, political, and sociological effects of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The students will present their research and written studies to the public in October 2006. She was an invited guest on the Detroit television broadcast of "Am I Right? Or Am I Right?" to provide commentary on Detroit municipal elections and other voting related controversies (October 28, 2006). She completed the Green Bay Marathon in Green Bay Wisconsin, May 2006. - August 23, 2006
Jocelyn Benson was appointed to board of Community Legal Resources
- Jocelyn Benson was featured in Elect Women Magazine in an article titled "Longtime Advocate of Fair Elections Jocelyn Benson Makes Bid for Michigan Secretary of State."
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson wrote an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press on Feb. 23, 2009, addressing the issue of absentee voter ballot applications. "Balancing the need to promote access to democracy with the importance of preventing fraud and other irregularities is the challenge of every election administrator," she writes.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was quoted by Curt Guyette in the Metro Times in an article about polling-place regulations in this story about voter rights on election day.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was featured in an WXYZ story on election laws related to voter apparel and paraphernalia at the polls on Oct. 2, 2008.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson commented in two segments about a rumor that political operatives may use foreclosure lists to keep people from voting on WJBK-TV on Sept. 30, 2008..
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was quoted by Christine MacDonald and Leonard N. Fleming in the Detroit News on Sept. 13, 2008, in a story about nine possible candidates for mayor of Detroit.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was quoted by Patricia Manson in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin in an article titled "Voting rights still not secure; some assert" on Feb. 11, 2008.
- Jocelyn Benson was featured in an article by the PR Newswire titled "Victory for NAACP Coalition at United States Department of Justice" on Dec. 29, 2007.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was a featured guest on the Detroit Public Television Weekly show, "Am I Right or Am I Right," hosted by Nolan Finely and Debbie Dingell on Jan 28, 2008.
- Jocelyn Benson was was interviewed and quoted in Our Michigan, a statewide publication and blog on issues relating to Michigan politics on Jan. 21, 2008.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was featured in a front page article in the Detroit Legal News and an article in the South End News regarding her recent designation as the Cohn Scholar for 2008-09, on Jan. 16, 2008.
Read Article - Jocelyn Benson was quoted by Celeste Whiting in the Michigan Messenger in an article titled "Voter advocates get ready for November" on Jan. 25, 2008.
Read Article