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
Texas League of United Latin American Citizens v. Abbott
Closed
Texas League of United Latin American Citizens v. Abbott, No. 1:20-cv-01006 (W.D. Tex.) |
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| Case Summary | On October 1, Governor Abbott of Texas issued an executive order that there may be no more than one ballot drop-off location per county. Plaintiffs allege that, under an Anderson-Burdick test, the single drop-off order impermissibly burdens the right to vote and does not further any state interest. Plaintiffs also allege an Equal Protection violation, in that voters in larger counties will be arbitrarily disproportionately impacted. Lastly, plaintiffs allege a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act due to the order’s adverse impact specifically on Latino voters. | |
| Filed | 10/01/2020 | |
| State | Texas | |
| Type of Court | Federal | |
| Circuit | Fifth Circuit | |
| Status | Closed | |
| Last Updated | 03/13/2021 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Vote-by-Mail (Other Vote-by-Mail Issue) Limiting in-person dropoff locations for ballots |
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| Complaint(s) | 10/01/2020: Complaint filed. | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 10/09/2020: Order/Ruling, The court first found that plaintiffs had standing and the suit was not barred by sovereign immunity. The court then applied Anderson-Burdick and found the burden on the right to vote to be somewhere between slight and severe, while the state’s alleged interest was vague and pretextual. The court granted a preliminary injunction which has been stayed by the Fifth Circuit, pending appeal. | |
Texas League of United Latin American Citizens v. Abbott, No. 20-50867 (5th Cir.) |
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| Case Summary | Two lower court cacses, LULAC v. Abbott and Straty v Hughs, were consolidated. The case was appealed after the discrict court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, granting an injuction to enjoin election officials from enforcing the one-ballot-box-per-county rule. | |
| Filed | 10/12/2020 | |
| State | Texas | |
| Type of Court | Federal | |
| Circuit | Fifth Circuit | |
| Status | Closed | |
| Last Updated | 03/13/2021 | |
| Issue Tag(s) | Vote-by-Mail (Drop Boxes/Drop Off Locations) | |
| Dispositive Ruling(s) | 10/12/2020: Other, The lower court erred in its application of Anderson-Burdick. The Fifth Circuit found that the single dropoff location limit did not pose a burden on the right to vote at all. In fact, it is an expansion of rights since, prior to the July 27 proclamation, mail ballots could be hand-delivered to the early voting clerk only on Election Day. The state court also undervalued the state’s interests. The Fifth Circuit held that states have critically important interests in the orderly administration of elections and in vigilantly reducing opportunities for voting fraud. The court stayed the injunction on the governor’s proclamation. | |
| 03/16/2021: Order/Ruling, The opposed motion of appellants to vacate the district court's judgment of October 9, 2020 is granted by the court; the court also ordered that the opposed motion of appellants to remand to the district court with instructions to dismiss as moot is granted and that the incorporated motion of appellees to vacate the court's opinion of October 12, 2020 is denied. | ||
| 03/24/2021: Order/Ruling, The judge ordered that claims are dismissed as moot. | ||
| 03/24/2021: Order/Ruling | ||
