Court Cases
Voting Rights & Elections
League of Women Voters of Florida v. Browning
The Brennan Center is working with nonpartisan voter registration groups in Florida to mount a constitutional challenge against Florida’s onerous new restrictions on community-based voter registration drives.
– 12/15/11
State Of Florida v. United States of America
On May 19th, 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Florida’s House Bill 1355, a mammoth 158-page omnibus bill, which includes language that restricts the opportunity and ability of citizens and grassroots organizations to conduct voter registration drives by imposing burdensome and wholly unnecessary regulations and red tape, reduces the number of days in the state’s early voting period, and potentially reduce the total of early voting hours, and, makes it impossible for registered voters who have recently moved between Florida counties to provide notice of their change of address on election day and still cast a regular ballot.
– 09/12/11
United States v. Village of Port Chester
Brennan Center represented Fair Vote in providing remedy to a Section 2 challenge against the Village of Port Chester.
– 04/22/11
Conservative Party of New York State and Working Families Party v. New York State Board of Elections
The Conservative Party and the Working Families party -- represented by the Brennan Center for Justice and the law firm of Emery Celli Brinkerhoff & Abady -- filed a lawsuit challenging a discriminatory New York State policy for counting political party votes under a procedure known as "double voting."
– 09/15/10
NAACP New York State Conference, et al. v. New York State Board of Elections, et al.
A coalition of groups representing low-income and minority voters sued the New York State and New York City Boards of Elections in US District Court to prevent the use of a voting machine configuration that would lead to tens of thousands of lost votes.
– 06/28/10
Common Cause of Colorado, et al. v. Buescher
A coalition of voting rights groups sued the Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman (who, upon leaving office, was replaced by Brian Buescher) claiming he illegally removed over 27,000 voters from the rolls. They filed a temporary restraining order to get those names reinstated and to ensure additional names cannot be removed before Election Day.
– 01/22/10
Farrakhan v. Gregoire
The Ninth Circuit held that Washington's criminal disenfranchisement law violates the Voting Rights Act. The decision is the first in the country to find that, due to racial discrimination in the state's criminal justice system, the felony disenfranchisement law results in the denial of the right to vote on account of race.
– 01/05/10
League of Women Voters v. Rokita
The League of Women Voters of Indiana and the League of Women Voters of Indianapolis challenged Indiana’s Voter ID Law under provisions of the Indiana State Constitution. The Indiana law is the most restrictive ID law in America, and will exclude many eligible voters from participating in our democratic process. On November 9, 2009, various parties filed amicus briefs in support of Plaintiffs. On June 30, 2010, the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana affirmed the decision of the trial court and granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
– 11/10/09
Simmons v. Galvin
Simmons vs. Galvin was a challenge to the Massachusetts law which disenfranchises people with felony convictions from voting while they are incarcerated.In a 2-1 decision, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and held that no claims can be brought against Massachusetts law under the Voting Rights Act.
– 08/05/09
NAMUDNO v. Holder
NAMUDNO v. Holder involves a constitutional challenge to the Voting Rights Act, perhaps the country’s single most successful piece of civil rights legislation.
– 06/22/09