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Michael J. Pitts Professor of Law and Dean's Fellow Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Lawrence W. Inlow Hall, Room 315 530 W. New York Street Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225 Phone: (317) 278-9155 E-Mail: mjpitts@iupui.edu SSRN Curriculum Vitae

Education

B.S.J., 1993, Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism
J.D. (magna cum laude), 1999, Georgetown University Law Center

Courses

Election law, civil procedure, evidence

Bio

Mike Pitts joined the law school faculty in the fall of 2006 after serving for one year as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law where he taught constitutional law, professional responsibility, employment discrimination, and election law. From 2001 to 2005, he practiced as a trial attorney in the Voting Section of the United States Department of Justice. He is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and served as an associate editor of The Georgetown Law Journal. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable C. Arlen Beam, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Professor Pitts’ scholarly work focuses on the law of democracy, particularly voting rights and election administration. His work has been cited in law reviews, political science journals, briefs, federal and state judicial opinions, and congressional testimony. He has been named a John S. Grimes fellow three times (2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12) and a Dean’s Fellow in recognition of scholarly excellence five times (2007-11). Professor Pitts frequently provides commentary about election law issues to the media and has been quoted by The Associated Press and The New York Times, and has appeared on CNN. He also is a two-time winner of the Red Cane Award for Best New Professor (2008 and 2009), a winner of the Black Cane Award for Best Professor (2010), and a recipient of a Trustee’s Teaching Award (2010).

Publications

(SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=405097)
 

Law Review and Journal Articles

Photo ID, Provisional Balloting, and Indiana's 2012 Primary Election, 47 U. Richmond L. Rev. 939 (2013)

Opt-Out Voting, 39 Hofstra L. Rev. 897 (2011)

Redistricting and Discriminatory Purpose, 59 Am. U. L. Rev. 1575 (2010)

Introduction: A Symposium on the Law of Democracy, 44 Ind. L. Rev. 1 (2010)

Poll Workers, Election Administration, and the Problem of Implicit Bias, 15 Mich. J. Race & L. 1 (2009) (w/ Antony Page)

Documenting Disfranchisement: Voter Identification at Indiana's 2008 General Election, 25 J. L. & Pol. 329 (2009) (w/ Matthew Neumann)

What Will the Life of Riley v. Kennedy Mean for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act?, 68 Md. L. Rev. 481 (2009)

Empirically Assessing the Impact of Photo Identification at the Polls Through An Examination of Provisional Balloting, 24 J. L. & Pol. 475 (2008)

The Voting Rights Act and the Era of Maintenance, 59 Ala. L. Rev. 903 (2008)

Defining Partisan Law Enforcement, 18 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 324 (2007)

Heads or Tails? A Modest Proposal for Deciding Close Elections, 39 Conn. L. Rev. 739 (2006)

Let’s Not Call the Whole Thing Off Just Yet: A Response to Samuel Issacharoff’s Suggestion To Scuttle Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 84 Neb. L. Rev. 605 (2005)

Georgia v. Ashcroft: It’s the End of Section 5 As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), 32 Pepp. L. Rev. 265 (2005)

Congressional Enforcement of Affirmative Democracy Through Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 25 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 183 (2005)

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: A Once and Future Remedy?, 81 Denv. U. L. Rev. 225 (2003)


Essays and Reports

One Person, One Vote: Teaching “Sixth-Grade Arithmetic”, 56 St. Louis U. L. J. 759 (2012)

Voter Identification (Part of Pew Center on the States Report, Provisional Ballots: An Imperfect Solution) (Aug. 31, 2009)

The Amicus Briefs in the Indiana Voter Identification Case: I read . . . so you don’t have to, Commentary for Election Law @ Moritz (Jan. 8, 2008)

The Exclusionary Rule, 86 Geo. L.J. 1339 (1998)


Book Reviews

Redistricting 101, 10 Election L. J. 483 (2011) (reviewing Charles Bullock III's "Redistricting")

Ordinary People, 6 Election L. J. 113 (2007) (reviewing Spencer Overton's "Stealing Democracy")


Other Publications

Outdated racial stereotypes can mask subtler forms of bias, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (July 28, 2009) (w/ Antony Page)


Work in Progress

Election Law Litigation (w/ Foley & Douglas) (Aspen 2014)