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

 

Kishore v. Newsom

Closed. Settled and/or Withdrawn

Kishore v. Newsom, No. 2:20-cv-05859 (C.D. Cal.)

  Case Summary Third party candidates (Socialist Equality Party) alleged that deadline and signature-threshold requirements for ballot access, as applied to them under the current pandemic circumstances, effectively prevent their addition to the ballot and therefore violate their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. They sought either an extension of the filing deadline, or an injunction prohibiting CA from printing November ballots unless and until the third party candidates' names are included.
Filed 06/30/2020
State California
Type of Court Federal
Circuit Ninth Circuit
Status Closed. Settled and/or Withdrawn
Last Updated 06/03/2021
Issue Tag(s) Candidate Signature Requirement (Deadline/Time to Collect, E-signatures, Threshold Number)
Complaint(s) 06/30/2020: Complaint filed.
Dispositive Ruling(s) 07/20/2020: Order/Ruling, Minutes of Chamber Order: Preliminary Injunction denied on grounds that plaintiff's burden is insufficiently severe and that the state has sufficient justifications for the stay at home order -- therefore, the plaintiffs are too unlikely to succeed on the merits to justify the requested relief.
08/03/2020: Order/Ruling, Official Order: Preliminary Injunction denied on grounds that plaintiff's burden is insufficiently severe and that the state has sufficient justifications for the stay at home order -- therefore, the plaintiffs are too unlikely to succeed on the merits to justify the requested relief.
08/07/2020: Order/Ruling, Dismissed without prejudice. Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed this entire action as to all claims and parties pursuant to FRCP 41(a)(1)(A) before an answer was filed by the opposing parties. Concurrently, the parties filed a joint motion in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the pending appeal pursuant to FRAP 42(b).

Kishore v. Newsom, No. 20-55748 (9th Cir.)

  Case Summary Third-party candidates (Socialist Equality Party) allege that deadline and signature-threshold requirements for ballot access, as applied to them under the current pandemic circumstances, effectively prevent their addition to the ballot and therefore violate their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. They seek either an extension of the filing deadline, or an injunction prohibiting CA from printing November ballots unless and until the third party candidates' names are included. After the denial of a preliminary injunction below, Plaintiffs appealed. The case was voluntarily dismissed before the appeal could make progress.
Filed 07/22/2020
State California
Type of Court Federal
Circuit Ninth Circuit
Status Closed. Settled and/or Withdrawn
Last Updated 08/03/2021
Issue Tag(s) Candidate Signature Requirement (Deadline/Time to Collect, E-signatures, Threshold Number)
Dispositive Ruling(s) 08/05/2020: Order/Ruling, The court denied the appellant's motion for reconsideration.
08/07/2020: Order/Ruling, Appellants J. Kishore and N. Santa Cruz filed a joint motion in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the pending appeal voluntarily pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b).
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