(This op-ed was first published in Slate on November 23, 2020.)

Courts and state bars have a responsibility to act against an egregious attempt to undermine American democracy.

Despite a definitive statement by the Department of Homeland Security that the 2020 election “was the most secure in American history,” since Election Day, lawyers supporting the Trump campaign have filed some three dozen lawsuits alleging voting irregularities in five key states. The most common legal claims are that Republican poll watchers were denied meaningful participation in the process of counting absentee and mail-in ballots and that supposedly defective Democratic votes were counted, while valid Republican votes were not.

(Continue reading the op-ed on the Slate’s page here.)

Nora Freeman Engstrom, Professor of Law and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar, is a nationally recognized expert in both tort law and legal ethics. Deborah L. Rhode is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on the Legal Profession. Scott Cummings is Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics and Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and David Luban is a University Professor and Professor of Law and Philosophy at Georgetown Law.