[Image via news.wisc.edu]

Longtime election attorney and scholar Dan Tokaji is the new dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School, it was announced yesterday. Here’s the story:

Daniel P. Tokaji has been named dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

He has been a professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law since 2003, serving as associate dean for faculty since 2018.

A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale Law School, Tokaji clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before arriving at Ohio State, he was a civil rights lawyer in California for eight years.

Tokaji is currently the Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Williams Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law at Ohio State. His scholarship focuses primarily on the field of election law, addressing questions of voting rights, civil rights, free speech and democratic inclusion.

Tokaji’s election law background is even more apparent in his current Moritz bio:

Professor Tokaji is the author of Election Law in a Nutshell (2d ed. 2016), and co-author of Election Law: Cases and Materials (6th ed. 2017) and The New Soft Money (2014). He has written numerous articles and book chapters on a wide variety of election and voting issues, including voting rights, voter ID, voter registration, redistricting, campaign finance regulation. Recent articles include “Gerrymandering and Association,” 59 William & Mary Law Review 2159 (2018), and “Denying Systemic Equality: The Last Words of the Kennedy Court,” 13 Harvard Law & Policy Review 539 (2019). His current research focuses on the challenges facing democracies around the globe, including the free speech issues surrounding digital disinformation and the need for trustworthy electoral institutions…

Professor Tokaji has litigated many civil rights, civil liberties, and election law cases. He was lead counsel in a case that struck down an Ohio law requiring naturalized citizens to produce a certificate of naturalization when challenged at the polls. He also served as counsel in litigation challenging the state’s voting purges. He was also an attorney for plaintiffs in cases that kept open the window for simultaneous registration and early voting in Ohio’s 2008 general election, and that challenged punch-card voting systems in Ohio and California after the 2000 election.

Dan has been a consistent voice for strong judicial protections for the election process – and he will now have a front-row seat for much of the litigation that has characterized Wisconsin’s election process in recent years. He will undoubtedly be missed at Moritz, but it’s a tremendous and well-deserved honor for one of the leading scholars in the field. Kudos to the Dan and Wisconsin and best of luck going forward! Stay tuned …

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