National Center for State Courts (NCSC)

NCSC is a sponsoring organization of the Election Law Program, together with the William and Mary Law School. The Election Law Program operates the Election Law Navigator, and had received funding from several organizations to form it including the Democracy Fund, the Election Trust Initiative (ETI), the Hewlett Foundation, the Klarman Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.  ²

Background

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is a legal policy research institution. The group claims that its mission is to increase the efficiency of state courts as a means of improving the national justice system. NCSC’s research often includes studying how technology can be integrated in court proceedings. Moreover, the group provides educational services and certifications regarding court practices. ³

Election Law Program

The Election Law Program is a project sponsored by National Center for State Courts (NCSC) together with the William and Mary Law School. One project of the Election Law Program is its Election Law Navigator, which contains the election codes from all 50 states along with relevant case law and other resources.  ²

The Election Law Program helped develop the Election Law Navigator project through funding from the Democracy Fund, the Election Trust Initiative, the Hewlett Foundation, the Klarman Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. ²

Activities

Conference of Chief Justices

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) hosts the Conference of Chief Justices, which seeks to facilitate meetings and the sharing of information between state chief justices across the country.  ⁴

Transforming Justice

The NCSC runs a project entitled Transforming Justice, which began in 2022 and claims to be researching how to innovate the court system, informed by “pandemic insights.” For instance, one of the aims of the project is to improve remote court services. Furthermore, the project claims one of its goals is advancing racial justice and in part seeks to improve courts from the framework of the critical race theory-influenced concept of “equity.”  ^{5 6}

Funding

In 2023, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) had $104,338,175 in revenue, $102,040,636 in expenses, and $57,630,182 in total assets. That same year, NCSC received $84,475,065 in government grants; this accounted for around 81 percent of its revenue that year.  ¹

NCSC has been awarded a total of $704 million in federal grants, according to USA Spending; the largest awarding agency is the United States Department of State.  ⁷

The Foundation to Promote Open Society has given $950,000 to NCSC from two different grants, one beginning in 2018 and the other in 2019, according to the Open Society Foundation’s grants database.  ⁸

In 2022, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave a three-year and ten-month $1,125,000 grant to NCSC.  ⁹

In 2022, All Rise for Justice gave $172,883 to NCSC. ¹⁰

In 2022, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation gave $500,000 to NCSC.  ¹¹

In 2020, the Annie E. Casey Foundation gave $130,000 to NCSC, $100,000 in 2019, and $40,000 in 2015.  ¹²

People

Elizabeth Clement became the president and CEO of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) in 2025. Previously, Clement was a Michigan Supreme Court justice, serving as the court’s chief justice from 2022 until she resigned to take the post at NCSC. She had also been deputy chief of staff and chief legal counselor to former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R).  ¹³

As of 2025, Collins Seitz, Jr. was the chair of the board of NCSC. Seitz was also the chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court at the time, a position he has held since 2019.  ¹⁴