Page 22 - The American Lawyer Trailblazers - South 2022

Washington, D.C.

R. Stanton Jones and Elisabeth S. Theodore

Arnold & Porter

What was the genesis of the idea/path that has made you a trailblazer?
Historically, litigants seeking to protect voting rights in the South have turned primarily to federal courts, chal-
lenging Southern states’ voter suppression laws and tactics under the U.S. Constitution. In recent years, as success
in federal courts became more elusive, we turned instead to state courts seeking to expand protections for voting
rights under state constitutions. After our initial success challenging Pennsylvania’s gerrymandering congressio-
nal map in 2018, we focused our efforts on North Carolina, challenging the state’s badly gerrymandered political
maps and its 19th century felony disenfranchisement law which barred tens of thousands of citizens living in the
community—disproportionately African Americans—from voting.
What sort of change has resulted from the concept?
Our successful state court lawsuits in North Carolina struck down gerrymandered political maps that substantially
diluted the voting power of Democratic and minority voters in elections for both Congress and the state legis-
lature. And our successful challenge to the state’s felony disenfranchisement law restored voting rights to over
56,000 North Carolinians—disproportionately African Americans—living in communities across the state. These
are dramatic advances for voting rights and hopefully a model for other Southern states.
What bearing will this have on the future?
Given the realities of federal litigation today, we believe that state courts and state constitutions will play an in-
creasingly important role in the fight for voting rights as well as other racial and social justice causes. Our lawsuits
have shown that, in appropriate cases, state courts in the South and elsewhere can and will interpret their own
state constitutions to provide more robust protections for civil rights than the federal constitution. And on key
issues ranging from voting rights to reproductive rights, we expect other litigants to follow this pathway.

Cheryl Leanza

Best Best & Krieger

What was the genesis of the idea/path that has made you a trailblazer?
My whole career has been focused on ensuring all people have access to technology and communications,
whether that is: ensuring local governments can receive funding for critical technology infrastructure or negotiate
with cable companies or wireless companies to serve their communities; challenging communications transac-
tions that harm competition or access to local journalism; ensuring affordable access to broadband internet for
low-income households; or fighting predatory telephone rates for the families of incarcerated people.

What sort of change has resulted from the concept?
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the importance of access to high-speed broadband internet became immedi-
ately apparent to policymakers around the country. A fellow advocate and I sat down at her kitchen table during
the earliest days of the shutdown in 2020 to write draft federal legislation that would offer subsidies to low-in-
come households to partially offset the costs of a monthly broadband internet subscription. Those ideas eventu-
ally were passed as the short-term Emergency Broadband Benefit and the permanent Affordable Connectivity
Program. We built the program on an existing program run by the Federal Communications Commission, Lifeline,
which offered more limited support for telephone and other connectivity. Today, because of these efforts, low-
income families can apply to receive a $30 per month discount off broadband internet or mobile internet.

What bearing will this have on the future?
These programs will hopefully set the stage for a long-standing federal commitment to affordable high-speed broad-
band internet for decades to come. Those programs, along with the once-in-a-generation level of funding for states,
localities and non-profits to deploy broadband infrastructure, develop digital inclusion programs, and assist schools
and other institutions with broadband access hopefully will enable the U.S. to ultimately close the digital divide.

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