following her presentation, we'll be joined by two experts in voting rights law, first professor richard peldes who is the professor of constitutional law at the new york university school of law will speak. he's one of the nation's leading scholars of public law and a specialist in legal issues affecting democracy. he is widely considered to be one of the nation's leading scholars on the voting rights act and is the coeditor of the future of the voting rights act published bit russell sage foundation fliers of which are available at the front desk at the check-in. he is also the -- written for the "new york times," "the wall street journal," the new republic and similar publications and has also served as counsel in election litigation to the puerto rico electoral commission and is a federal court appointed expert on the voting rights litigation. concluding our discussion is michael card -- carvin and has argued numerous cases before the supreme court including decisions limiting the justice's department to create majority/minority districts and upholding the ban on racial preferences in calif