Michael T. Morley is a law professor who has written extensively on election and constitutional law. He has contributed to both the conservative-leaning Federalist Society and the National Task Force on Election Crises, an ostensibly nonpartisan commission on election security that criticized President Donald Trump. Morley is a scholar on the First Amendment and election law and federal-state relations. He is also an advocate for reforming sovereign immunity rules that prevent individuals from bringing lawsuits against government officials.

Background

Michael T. Morley is a law school professor at Florida State University specializing in election law, constitutional law, remedies, and the federal courts. ¹  His research focuses on election emergencies, the Electoral Count Act, and the voting rights. ² Morley was a Florida advisory committee member for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and former chair of the American Association of Law Schools section on election law. ³ Morley previously worked as special assistant to the general counsel of the Army and at the law firms Williams & Connolly and Winston & Strawn. ⁴ Morley has a A.B. from Princeton University and J.D. from Yale University. ⁵

Views

Morley writes extensively on election law matters and on Supreme Court cases. ⁶ He is frequently quoted for his writings on the independent state legislature doctrine of the Constitution, which relates to state legislative power over federal elections without state court oversight. ⁷ Morley’s legal writings have often been cited by conservative legal groups and Morley has contributed to the Federalist Society. ⁸ Morley’s legal writings tend to argue for states’ rights and to state power in federal-state relations. ⁹

Morley has written that the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission is a straightforward application of free speech rights, a victory for the First Amendment, and rejects the criticism of politicians such as former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. ¹⁰ Morley wrote that corporations are taxed and subject to government regulation and it is only fair for corporations to voice their views on candidates for public office. ¹¹

In 2022, Morley joined a University of California, Los Angeles-led bipartisan group, the Safeguarding Democracy Project. ¹² Morley has debated left-leaning law professor Edward B. Foley on election law. ¹³ Morley has argued that the ruling in Ex Parte Young granting sovereign immunity to government officials should be limited to give individuals greater freedom to sue government officials who violate constitutional rights, and that such suits should be used to preemptively challenge such laws. ¹⁴

The self-described nonpartisan National Task Force on Election Crises, of which Morley is a member, works to secure elections from both man-made and natural disasters, with a special focus on the COVID-19 outbreak and its effects on elections. The Task Force stated that President Trump “incited a violent insurrection” on January 6, 2021 and “this attack on our democracy culminated with white supremacist rioters attacking the Capitol seeking to not only overturn the Constitutional order, but also take hostages and assassinate members of Congress and the Vice President.” ¹⁵

1. “Michael Morley.” Florida State University College of Law. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://law.fsu.edu/faculty-staff/michael-morley.
2. “Michael Morley.” Florida State University College of Law. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://law.fsu.edu/faculty-staff/michael-morley.
3. “Michael Morley.” Florida State University College of Law. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://law.fsu.edu/faculty-staff/michael-morley.
4. “Michael Morley.” Florida State University College of Law. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://law.fsu.edu/faculty-staff/michael-morley.
5. “Michael Morley.” Florida State University College of Law. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://law.fsu.edu/faculty-staff/michael-morley.
6. Morley, Michael T. “The Independent State Legislature Doctrine.” Fordham Law Review. Vol. 90 Issue 2, Article 6. 2021. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5885&context=flr; Itkowitz, Colby, and Stanley-Becker, Isaac. “Democracy Advocates Raise Alarm After Supreme Court Takes Election Case.” Washington Post. July 1, 2022. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/01/democracy-advocates-raise-alarm-after-supreme-court-takes-election-case/.]
7. “Why Dissent by Conservative Justices in Voting Rights Cases Is Alarming.” The Guardian. March 10, 2022. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/10/us-supreme-court-dissent-voting-rights; Morley, Michael T. “The Independent State Legislature Doctrine.” Fordham Law Review. Vol. 90 Issue 2, Article 6. 2021. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5885&context=flr.
8. Itkowitz, Colby, and Stanley-Becker, Isaac. “Democracy Advocates Raise Alarm After Supreme Court Takes Election Case.” Washington Post. July 1, 2022. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/01/democracy-advocates-raise-alarm-after-supreme-court-takes-election-case/.
9. Morley, Michael T. “Reverse Nullification and Executive Discretion.” 17 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 1283 (2015). Accessed July 24, 2022. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jcl/vol17/iss5/1/; Morley, Michael T. “The Independent State Legislature Doctrine.” Fordham Law Review. Vol. 90 Issue 2, Article 6. 2021. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5885&context=flr.
10. Morley, Michael T. “Money, Politics, and Justice Anthony Kennedy: Revisiting Citizens United.” The Conversation. July 24, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://theconversation.com/money-politics-and-justice-anthony-kennedy-revisiting-citizens-united-99632.
11. Morley, Michael T. “Money, Politics, and Justice Anthony Kennedy: Revisiting Citizens United.” The Conversation. July 24, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://theconversation.com/money-politics-and-justice-anthony-kennedy-revisiting-citizens-united-99632.
12. Safeguarding Democracy press release. July 7, 2022. Accessed July 25, 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ucla-law-launches-safeguarding-democracy-project-led-by-richard-l-hasen-301582132.html.
13. “’Election Integrity and Voting Rights’ with Edward Foley and Michael Morley.” American Law Institute.  February 15, 2022. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://www.ali.org/news/articles/election-integrity-and-voting-rights-edward-foley-and-michael-morley/.
14. Morley, Michael T. “Constitutional Tolling and Preenforcement Challenges to Private Rights of Action.” Notre Dame Law Review. Vol. 97:5, 1825. 2022. Accessed July 24, 2022. http://ndlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NDL503_Morley_06_07-cropped-1.pdf.
15. “Resources.” National Task Force on Election Crises. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/resources.