COVID-Related Election Litigation Tracker

Case Details

This database consolidates and tracks litigation concerning the effect of the pandemic on election law. The purpose of this tool is to provide an interactive list of relevant cases that can be searched by issue, court, status, and jurisdiction.

Case Details

 

Republican National Committee v. Newsom

Closed. Settled and/or Withdrawn (Voluntary dismissal)

Republican National Committee v. Newsom, No. 2:20-cv-01055 (E.D. Cal.), 2020 WL 3430243 2020 WL 3074351(as related case)

  Case Summary California Republicans have filed a pair of similar federal lawsuits seeking to block Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's order to send mail ballots to all California voters for the November general election. One suit was brought by the RNC, NRCC, and the California Republican Party ("RNC Plaintiffs") while the other was filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch on behalf of former Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who is waging a comeback bid in the 50th Congressional District this fall, and others ("Issa Plaintiffs"). The two cases both allege the governor's mail ballot plan violates the Constitution because it usurps the legislature's powers. Specifically, RNC Plaintiffs allege violations of the Elections Clause, the Electors Clause, the Right to Vote, and the Equal Protection Clause. The Court granted California Democrats' motions to intevene but denied several other organizations' motions to intervene. Later, the RNC Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the action in its entirety because the executive order was superseded by a legislative act.
Filed 05/24/2020
State California
Type of Court Federal
Circuit Ninth Circuit
Status Closed. Settled and/or Withdrawn (Voluntary dismissal)
Last Updated 03/13/2021
Issue Tag(s) Vote-by-Mail (Claim that Mail Voting Leads to Fraud and/or Vote Dilution)
Authority To Act (Elections Clause)
Complaint(s) 05/24/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 07/09/2020: Order/Ruling, Voluntary Dismissal. Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the action in its entirety because the executive order at issue was superseded by AB 860, enacted by California Legislature on June 18, 2020.
Creative Commons License  Covid-Related Election Litigation Tracker by the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project – Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.