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

 

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Walz

Closed

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Walz, No. 0:20-cv-01688 (D. Minn.)

  Case Summary Plaintiffs argued that the mask mandate in public places passed by Executive Order by the governor of Minnesota at the start of the pandemic conflicts with a Minnesota statute prohibiting the wearing of a mask in public. The plaintiffs argued that the prospect of being prosecuted either for wearing a mask or not wearing a mask chills their exercise of First Amendment political and associational freedoms. The plaintiffs further argued that the governor's executive order violates state law because it conflicts with a legislatively enacted statute, and that by passing the executive order the governor was unlawfully exercising legislative power.
Filed 08/04/2020
State Minnesota
Type of Court Federal
Circuit Eighth Circuit
Status Closed
Last Updated 05/14/2021
Issue Tag(s) Other
Mask requirement
Complaint(s) 08/04/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 10/02/2020: Order/Ruling, The Court held that the plaintiffs lack standing to pursue their state-law claims against most of the defendants and that they were unlikely to succeed on the merits because (1) the law prohibiting mask-wearing only does so to prevent the wearing of disguises, not face masks to protect against COVID-19; (2) the executive order requiring mask-wearing does not violate the Elections Clause or the First Amendment; and (3) there is no threat of irreparable harm because there is no evidence that the law prohibiting mask-wearing has ever been enforced.
11/09/2020: Other, Voluntarily dismissed.

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Walz, No. 20-03072 (8th Cir.)

  Case Summary Plaintiffs appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction by the U.S. District Court.
Filed 10/02/2020
State Minnesota
Type of Court Federal
Circuit Eighth Circuit
Status Closed
Last Updated 08/13/2021
Issue Tag(s) In-Person Voting COVID Concern (Other In-Person Voting Issue)
Authority To Act (State Separation of Powers, Elections Clause)
Mask requirement
Complaint(s) 10/02/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 10/06/2020: Other
10/26/2020: Order/Ruling, The Eighth Circuit denied an application for an injunction pending appeal, where the Minnesota Voters Alliance seeks to enjoin Governor Walz’s mask requirement for indoor public settings, including polling places.
10/26/2020: Order/Ruling, The appellate court denied the Minnesota Voters' Alliance's request for an injunction of Minnesota Govenor's executive order requring masks be worn at polling sites.
11/09/2020: Order/Ruling, The court granted the parties' stipulated dismissal.

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Walz, No. 20A81 (S. Ct.)

  Case Summary Applicants seek an injunction of the District Court decision, which had ruled that applicants lacked standing in their claim to challenge the Minnesota governor's polling place mask policy.
Filed 10/30/2020
State Minnesota
Type of Court Federal
Circuit US Supreme Court
Status Closed
Last Updated 03/13/2021
Issue Tag(s) In-Person Voting COVID Concern (Other In-Person Voting Issue)
Authority To Act (State Separation of Powers)
Mask requirement
Dispositive Ruling(s) 10/30/2020: Other
11/02/2020: Order/Ruling, Application denied without comment
Creative Commons License  Covid-Related Election Litigation Tracker by the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project – Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.