Mimi Murray Digby Marziani
Mimi Murray Digby Marziani served as counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program where she focused on money in politics, voting rights and legislative dysfunction. In this role, Ms. Marziani litigated election law cases in federal courts across the country, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also played an active role in the Brennan Center’s policy advocacy efforts on these issues, and leads the Center’s filibuster reform efforts.
Ms. Marziani frequently wrote on democracy issues, and contributed opinion editorials to U.S. News and World Report, The National Law Journal, Politico, The New York Law Journal, among others. She has been a featured speaker in a range of academic, media and political forums, including at the influential Netroots Nation conference in July 2010. In September 2010, Ms. Marziani was invited to testify on the constitutionality of filibuster reform before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.
Ms. Marziani also serves an NYU adjunct professor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, teaching undergraduate students about how constitutional law influences public policy debates.
From September 2008 to May 2010, in addition to her work at the Brennan Center, Ms. Marziani taught undergraduate students about the U.S. Constitution at NYU’s campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Prior to joining the Brennan Center, she clerked for Magistrate Judge James C. Francis, IV in the Southern District of New York.
Ms. Marziani graduated cum laude from NYU School of Law in 2008. There, she was an editor of Review of Law and Social Change and founded the school’s Alternative Spring Break program—a student group that facilitates week-long pro bono projects for law students. Ms. Marziani was awarded the university-wide NYU Presidents Service Award as well as the Dean John Sexton Prize for Service to the Law School. She received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University in English literature and psychology.
Publications
- Filibuster Abuse (2010)
- Introduction to Money, Politics, and the Constitution: Beyond Citizens United, NYU Review of Law & Social Change (2011)
Representative Litigation:
- South Carolina v. Holder (representing Intervenor-Defendant League of Women Voters to oppose enactment of South Carolina’s new voter identification law under the Voting Rights Act)
- League of Women Voters v. Browning (represented community-based organizations as plaintiffs in constitutional challenge to Florida’s new law restricting voter registration activity)
- Conservative Party v. New York State Board of Elections (represented minor party plaintiffs in constitutional challenge to New York State policy for counting political party votes)
- Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett (represented Intervenor-Defendant Arizona Clean Elections Institute in defense of Arizona’s public financing program)
- Green Party of Connecticut v. Jeffrey Garfield (represented political candidates and government reform organizations as Intervenors-Defendants in defense of Connecticut’s public financing program)
- Respect Maine PAC. v. Walter McKee (represented political candidates and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections as Intervenors-Defendants in defense of Maine’s public financing program)
Selected Articles
- "Why Fillibuster Reform is a Bipartisan Goal," The Hill (10/3/12)
- "Disclosure Bill Essential for Delaware Voters," The Delaware News Journal (5/2/12)
- "Growing Backlash Against 'Citizens United,'" The National Law Journal (1/23/12)
- "The Need for Super Accountability,'" Politico (08/10/11)
- "A Loss for 'We the People,'" The National Law Journal (07/18/11)
- "An Attack on Elections With Broad Implications," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (06/04/11)
- "Bringing Transparency to Maryland Elections," Baltimore Sun (04/22/11)
- "The DISCLOSE Act," The National Law Journal (05/10/2010)
- "Founding Fathers would like Reconciliation, not the Filibuster," with Susan Liss, U.S. News & World Report (03/23/2010)
- "A 21st-century 'Lochner,'" The National Law Journal (02/22/2010)
