My team will begin the week litigating 43 voting, election and redistricting cases in 17 states. I expect additional litigation this week.
As I told Nicolle Wallace, I'm worried because the attacks on democracy are getting worse. Donald Trump has gotten more desperate, our election systems are weaker, and I fear Trump and the GOP have more in store for us.
"Let’s be clear: election denialism is a threat to all of us, an attempt to ignore our voices at the ballot box and disenfranchise voters."-Christina Baal-Owens
https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/these-indictments-are-the-beginning-not-the-end/
My firm is currently litigating 4⃣4⃣ voting and election cases in 1⃣8⃣ states.
I expect new litigation this week. We are not done fighting and we are not done winning.
🚨BREAKING: Iowa Court enters order declaring state's "English Only" law does not apply to "ballots, registration and voting notices, forms, instructions, and other materials and information related to the electoral process." Congrats to team & LULAC IA!
https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/iowa-english-only-law/
“Alabama has chosen instead to thumb its nose at this court, to thumb its nose at the nation’s highest court and thumb its nose at its own Black citizens,” said Abha Khanna, the head of Elias Law Group’s redistricting practice and one of the lead lawyers. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/us/politics/alabama-redistricting-hearing.html
🚨NEW: Court DENIES Wisconsin GOP Legislature's motion to dismiss lawsuit by Rise and voter seeking clarification about what qualifies as a complete absentee ballot witness certificate address. https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/wisconsin-witness-certificate-incomplete-address-guidance-rise/
Read the court's recent protective order or any of the critical documents in the Trump criminal election case. https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/washington-d-c-former-president-donald-trump-indictment/
🚨BREAKING: Ohio Supreme Court unanimously REJECTS GOP lawsuit to block Reproductive Freedom ballot initiative. Clears last legal hurdle to November election. Proud of the Elias Law Group team who litigated this case. https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023-ohio-2786.pdf
🚨BREAKING: Ohio Republican effort to subvert democracy fails. Ohio Issue 1 defeated!
The best voting right news of the week.🥳
Trump continues to have lousy lawyers.
There is no question that Trump is the ultimate villain of the Jan. 6 insurrection. But he didn’t act alone.
Trump's lawyers are having a bad day.
"To prevent Democratic attempts to circumvent conservative state legislatures, Republican lawmakers have sought to restrict ballot initiatives across the country." https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/08/ohio-issue-1-special-election-abortion/674923/
In an emphatic 2-to-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upbraided Mississippi officials for what it called a pointless “denial of the democratic core of American citizenship."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/us/mississippi-felon-voting-ban.html
Pretty good evidence that aggressively litigating voting rights cases is essential to democracy. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/5th-circuit-strikes-down-mississippis-jim-crow-era-felony-disenfranchisement-provision/
I see a bail hearing (or two) in Trump's immediate future.
Republicans are STILL losing cases challenging the 2020 election. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-judge-tosses-out-gop-lawsuit-attempting-to-decertify-2020-election-results-in-michigan/
NEW: The 5th Circuit struck down a Jim Crow-era provision of the Mississippi Constitution that permanently disenfranchised Mississippians with certain felony convictions. The opinion held that the provision violates the 8th Amendment.