Voting Rights
Willkie has dedicated many pro bono hours to protecting individuals from voter discrimination and advocating for election protection. We are committed to protecting the right to vote through our partnerships with nonpartisan organizations to advance free, fair and secure elections, and facilitate participation in the election process. Some of our recent work includes:
Election Protection Litigation
A Willkie pro bono team, along with co-counsel at Protect Democracy and Dubose Miller LLC, won a landmark victory against Rudy Giuliani in a federal defamation suit on behalf of Fulton County Georgia election workers Wandrea ArShaye (Shaye) Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. The ruling reaffirms that Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman honorably performed their civic duties in the 2020 presidential election in full compliance with the law and that the allegations of election fraud Rudy Giuliani made against them have been false since day one.
Willkie and the Texas Civil Rights Project brought an action, on behalf of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and other voting rights organizations and individual voters, in Richardson v. Texas (5th Circuit), arguing that Texas’s signature matching process for mail-in ballots unconstitutionally disenfranchises Texas voters and, in particular, disabled and elderly voters. The court ruled that state officials must notify mail-in voters of perceived signature mismatches prior to ballot rejection and provide those voters with the opportunity to confirm they had cast the ballot in question before an election is over. The recent decision garnered notable news coverage. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed and found that the state’s chief election officer was protected by sovereign immunity. Additional claims are currently pending.
In December 2023, Willkie was co-counsel in Freeman and Moss v. Rudolph Giuliani, a defamation lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Fulton County, Georgia election workers Wandrea ArShaye (Shaye) Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. The damages were awards for the harm Rudy Giuliani caused by spreading lies that Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman had intentionally undermined the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. At the close of the four-day trial, the eight members of the jury awarded $75 million in punitive damages, $33,169,000 million in defamation damages, and $40 million in total damages for infliction of emotional distress.
Moore v. Harper (SCOTUS 2023): Willkie filed an amicus brief on behalf of constitutional law professors, Lawrence Friedman and Robert F. Williams, in a United States Supreme Court case involving the “independent state legislature theory” which sought to interpret the Constitution to grant state legislatures exclusive power over redistricting and other rules for federal elections. This interpretation would bolster the power of state legislatures to create partisan gerrymanders. The Supreme Court, on June 27, 2023, in keeping with the position advocated in Willkie’s amicus brief, determined that the Elections Clause (Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution) does not vest exclusive and independent authority in state legislatures to set the rules regarding federal elections.
Petteway, et al. v. Galveston County, et al. (S.D. Tex. 2023): Willkie, the Texas Civil Rights Project and The Southern Coalition for Social Justice brought this lawsuit alleging that the Galveston County Commissioners Court diluted the votes of and discriminated against its residents of color in violation of the Voting Rights Act and U.S. Constitution with its 2021 redistricting maps by destroying the only majority-minority precinct in Galveston County, a county whose population is 45% people of color. In October 2023, after a bench trial, the court ruled that the redrawn map illegally diluted the voting power of the county’s Black and Latino voters and ordered that it be redrawn ahead of the next election. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed, finding no clear error in the trial court record; however, the Court ordered to rehear the case en banc to assess the validity of coalition claims under § 2 of the Voting Rights Act, i.e., if Black and Latino voters in Galveston County may be aggregated to form a majority district. Oral argument took place on May 14, 2024. The district court ruling is stayed pending a decision from the en banc court.
Cervini v. Cisneros and Cervini v. Stapp (Texas): Willkie, along with Protect Democracy and the Texas Civil Rights Project, helped secure a settlement in October 2023 with the City of San Marcos, Texas for its police department’s failure to appropriately respond to a “Trump Train” convoy on a local highway that swarmed and assaulted Biden-Harris supporters aboard a campaign bus a few days before the 2020 presidential election. In settling this case, the city, on behalf of the San Marcos Police Department, admitted to falling short of its own policing standards, agreed to institute mandatory training for all officers, and agreed to pay a total of $175,000 in damages to the plaintiffs whom they failed to protect. A separate action against the individual drivers of the convoy is ongoing.
General
Willkie works with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund to monitor polling places and record incidents of anti-Asian voter discrimination. Willkie attorneys also staff voting rights call centers administered by Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Election Protection, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund (NALEO) and other non-partisan organizations.
Willkie attorneys are members of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance Voting Rights Working Group, which focuses on reducing racial discrimination in voting.