With the nation’s most closely watched congressional race headed to a runoff in June, a D.C.-based voting rights advocacy group is pressing in federal court to reopen voter registration. It is the latest legal maneuver for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law. The non-profit law firm dates back to the Kennedy administration, but it’s been very active in Georgia since the …
Lawyers for convicted felons filed a class-action lawsuit Monday against Florida officials, alleging that the state’s process for restoring voting rights to people who have completed their sentences is arbitrary. The lawsuit, filed in federal court on behalf of seven convicted felons by the Fair Elections Legal Network and the Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll law firm, seeks to …
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana on March 13 will hear a Terrebonne Parish NAACP lawsuit seeking to create a majority-minority judicial district system to better represent the blacks and minorities in the parish. Multiple attempts at creating legislation to break up the parish failed before the lawsuit was filed in 2014, according to a reportby the …
A civil rights committee and two law firms filed a lawsuit Monday seeking voting rights for Black residents in North Carolina, reports USA Today. From USA Today: In a bid to create a better chance for black residents of rural areas to get elected to local office, a team of civil rights and private lawyers has filed what one prominent civil rights organization calls the first major voting rights …
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Project Vote, Campaign Legal Center, Voting Rights Institute at the Georgetown University Law Center, along with the New York City office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Atlanta-based firm of Caplan Cobb LLP, acting as pro bono counsel, announced a settlement today in a lawsuit filed on behalf Asian Americans Advancing Justice – …
A group of activists has challenged New York State’s law banning “ballot selfies,” and a federal judge has asked officials why he shouldn’t strike it down altogether. Yesterday afternoon, Judge P. Kevin Castel issued an order to show cause requiring New York State election officials to defend the constitutionality of the state law, which …
A voting rights lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to do away with the at-large elections of judges who sit on Alabama’s three appellate courts, including the Alabama Supreme Court. The at-large election system has been racially discriminatory towards African Americans, who make up more than a quarter of the state’s population, according to the lawsuit that suggests election by single-member …
On New Year’s Day 2016 a new state law went into effect in California which affirms the right to vote for thousands of seniors and people with disabilities. If they can express their desire to vote, they have the right to vote. The problem? Unless immediate action is taken, thousands of eligible California voters are going to be watching November’s election results on television knowing they were prevented from voting because of California officials previously disqualified them from voting – in violation of federal voting rights laws.
A group of advocacy organizations filed a federal lawsuit against Gwinnett County Monday over district lines and at-large voting, claiming the voting method prevents minority voters from being able to elect candidates of their choosing. The suit argues that no minority has ever been elected to the county’s Board of Commissioners and Board of Education.
A lawsuit has been filed against Texas’ governor and secretary of state regarding the alleged denial of equal opportunity for Latino voters in electing judges of their race. The suit filed by five Latino voters alleges that Texas is in violation of the Voting Rights Act for the process used to elect judges to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal and the Supreme Court. The legal team …