Elections, criminal justice, and new technologies provide crucial sites where legal and political conflicts intersect. We examine these areas of contention, both for their immediate importance and their theoretical meaning. Claims about the large role of law in and near American politics have a long history in social science and public understanding. Arguments about relations between law and politics have durable importance. Both issues deserve a new look. We analyze competing views of how politics and law are related. Then we examine rules and norms for choosing leaders and prohibiting corrupt and anti-democratic actions. We consider controversies about voting rights, political participation (and political finance), political violence, and impeachment. We next look at policy and political conflicts about security, criminal justice, and policing – all of which intersect racial and ethnic relations. What do equity and security mean as norms and legal approaches? Then we engage the legal and political arguments about the dramatic reshaping of the political economy by emergent technologies of communication, information, and supervision. We assess debates about the power of the largest tech companies, the aims of government action, and the regulation of political and cultural expression. This course is for M.A. and Ph.D. students in Politics at NSSR and for graduate students in other programs at TNS. Seniors at Eugene Lang College may be admitted with the permission of the instructor.