ALI-Convened Group Issues Principles for Electoral Count Act Reform

At the invitation of the leadership of The American Law Institute, a group whose members span a range of legal and political views came together to consider possible Electoral Count Act (ECA) reforms. Despite holding diverse legal, political, and ideological commitments, the group is united by the belief that Congress should reform the ECA before the 2024 presidential election. The group has agreed on several general principles that should guide ECA reform, as well as specific proposals as to what ECA reform should seek to accomplish. Read the group’s complete set of principles here, and read ALI’s press release here.

The members of the group, selected for their deep and varied experience in law and government, are:

• Bob Bauer (NYU School of Law and former White House Counsel) (Co-Chair)
• Elise C. Boddie (Rutgers Law School, and former litigation director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund)
• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar (President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and formerly a Justice of the California Supreme Court)
• Courtney Simmons Elwood (former General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency)
• Jack Goldsmith (Harvard Law School and former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel) (Co-Chair)
• Larry Kramer (President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and former Dean of Stanford Law School)
• Don McGahn (Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, and former White House Counsel)
• Michael B. Mukasey (former United States District Court Judge and former United States Attorney General)
• Saikrishna Prakash (University of Virginia School of Law)
• David Strauss (University of Chicago Law School)

More detailed biographies are attached to the Statement of Principles for ECA Reform.

In an upcoming episode of the ALI’s Reasonably Speaking podcast, ALI President David F. Levi will be speaking with the group’s co-chairs Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith to further discuss their work. ALI Director Richard L. Revesz will also be devoting his April quarterly newsletter in The ALI Reporter to discussing the group’s important work.

“The American Law Institute is proud to have convened this group and to have facilitated its important work,” said ALI President David F. Levi and ALI Director Richard L. Revesz in a joint statement. “Because of the need for quick action, this project has not gone through the typical ALI bicameral process, which requires approval by both our Council and membership, and therefore cannot be considered the official work of the Institute. Our support for this project nonetheless contributes to the rule of law, which is a core priority for the ALI. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to this group for their critical and urgent work. We also would like to thank ALI Legal Fellow Harry Larson and Professor Goldsmith’s excellent team of research assistants for providing valuable support to this project.”

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About The American Law Institute

The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that are enormously influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.

By participating in the Institute’s work, its distinguished members have the opportunity to influence the development of the law in both existing and emerging areas, to work with other eminent lawyers, judges, and academics, to give back to a profession to which they are deeply dedicated, and to contribute to the public good.