Kareem Crayton

Associate Professor of Law and Political Science

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kcrayton@law.usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-2516
Fax: (213) 740-5502
Room: 474
Kareem Crayton is a redistricting and voting rights specialist in the field of law and politics. His scholarly research explores subjects that include election law, the political representation of racial minorities, and the emerging democracy in South Africa. His current work focuses on the legal and political debates surrounding the most recent renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

At USC Law, Professor Crayton teaches Civil Procedure, Election Law and Comparative Constitutional Law. Professor Crayton also an affiliated faculty member of Harvard University’s Department of Government and USC’s Department of Political Science, where he teaches Civil Rights & Civil Liberties and The Politics of the American City.

Prior to arriving at USC Law, Professor Crayton was the inaugural Vanderbilt Fellow at Vanderbilt Law School. He also served as a foreign law clerk for The Honorable Sandile Ngcobo, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court in the Republic of South Africa, and The Honorable Harry Edwards, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Professor Crayton is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College. He also earned a J.D. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University.

Works in Progress

• Re-Inventing Voting Rights Preclearance
• The Costs and Benefits of Section 5

Scholarly Publications

• “You May Not Get There With Me: Barack Obama and the Black Political Establishment” in Barack Obama and African American Empowerment: The Rise of Black America’s New Leadership, Manning Marable and Kristen Clarke eds., (Palgrave Press 2009) - (www)
• “Bartlett v. Strickland: Unveiling the Roberts Court Philosophy on Election Law,” 7 Election Law Journal 347 (2008).
• “Interactive Pre-clearance Development” 27 St. Louis Public Law Review 319 (2008). - (Hein)
• “Introduction to the Reports: Assessing Progress of the Voting Rights Act,” 17 Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice 65 (2008). - (Hein)
• “Beat ‘Em or Join ‘Em? White Voters and Black Candidates in Majority-Black Districts,” 58 Syracuse Law Review 547(2007) - (Hein)
• “The Real Motivations of White Democrats,” in Beyond the Color Line: Race, Representation, and Community in the New Century (Alex W. Willingham, ed.) (Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, 2002).
• What’s New about the New South? (Ph.D. Dissertation, Stanford University: Dept. of Political Science, 2002)
• "Gender Unbound: Making Sense of Hillary Clinton and Election 2008" Journal of Gender, Race and Justice (forthcoming, 2009)

Other Works

• The Redistricting Game (online software tool) - (www)
• "Judging The Costs and Benefits of Voting Rights Pre-Clearance," Findlaw (2009) - (www)
• "The Final Campaign Stretch: Sizing Up Election 2008", LA Times
• Amicus Brief on behalf of Congressional Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific Caucuses (Tri-Caucus) in North Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (2009)
• Amicus Brief on behalf of Congressional Black Caucus (contributor) in Bartlett v. Strickland (2008)

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