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

 

Seventh Congressional District Republican Committee v. Virginia Department of Elections

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Seventh Congressional District Republican Committee v. Virginia Department of Elections, No. CL20001640-00 (Va. Cir. Ct., Richmond City)

  Case Summary In Virginia, each qualified party decides for itself whether to use a primary or a convention to nominate for any particular partisan office. On April 15, a state trial court judge granted an injunction against the state law that says conventions must take place no later than June 9. The Seventh Congressional District Republican Committee had filed the lawsuit, saying it needs more time to hold its convention. The decision was made by Judge Bradley Cavedo of the 13th judicial circuit in Richmond.
Filed 04/07/2020
State Virginia
Type of Court State
Status Active
Last Updated 03/14/2021
Issue Tag(s) Postpone/Cancel Primary Deadline
Complaint(s) 04/07/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 04/14/2020: Order/Ruling, PI Granted: The Court granted the preliminary injunction by using a four factor test (Winter v. NRDC). It found that Virginia's statute requiring a political party to pick its nominee by June 9, 2020 imposed a severe burden on constitutionally protected freedom of association (the right to vote), and Defendants demonstrated no compelling interest, as weighed against the irreparable harm to Plaintiffs of not being able to select their candidate for the general election. The Court also found that it was in the public interest to grant the injunction.
04/20/2020: Order/Ruling, Motion to extend PI to all Congressional District Committees that have selected a non-primary method of nomination. Plaintiffs argued that the same analysis the Court went through in granting the PI applied to all other committees, that due to COVID-19, could not select their nominees by June 9, 2020.
04/22/2020: Order/Ruling, Consent Order: PI Extended
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