Michael J. Pitts Associate Professor of Law Dean's Fellow John S. Grimes Fellow Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis Lawrence W. Inlow Hall, Room 315 530 W. New York Street Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225 Phone: (317) 278-9155 E-Mail: mjpitts@iupui.edu 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, and his work has been published in a variety of law reviews and journals. He was named a John S. Grimes fellow in 2008-09 and 2009-10, and a Dean’s Fellow in recognition of scholarly excellence in 2007-08 and 2008-09. Professor Pitts frequently provides commentary about election law issues to the media and has been quoted by The Associate Press and The New York Times, and has appeared on CNN.  He also is a two-time winner (2008 and 2009) of the Red Cane Award for Best New Professor.

Publications

Law Review and Journal Articles

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

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

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

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

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


Other Publications

Outdated racial stereotypes can mask subtler forms of bias, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (July 28, 2009) (w/ Antony Page)