Filter by Type
Filter by Issue Area
Filter by Document Type
Filter by Case/Action Status
Districts 5 and 10 were found to be drawn in contravention of the constituional madates of Article III, Section 20, thus making the redistricting map unconsitituional as drawn.
Today, the Court issued this judgment that grants the plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment and denies the defendants' Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment. This ensures that Maryland will undergo redistricting reform.
Today, the Court issued this opinion from Judge Niemeyer, Judge Bredar, and Judge Russell. This opinion was issued in conjunction with a judgment that directed Maryland to institute redistricting reform.
On July 11, 2019, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington affirmed a lower court decision upholding Seattle’s innovative democracy voucher public financing program. Plaintiffs challenged the public funding program as an unconstitutional use of tax dollars. The State Supreme Court rejected this argument holding that the program does not restrict plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a January 15 opinion by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman finding that Secretary Ross lied about his reasons for adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
On Thursday, June 27, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.
On May 30, 2019, a unanimous 6th Circuit panel upheld all challenged provisions of Kentucky’s ethics and campaign finance laws. The appellate court found that the provisions barring state legislators from receiving gifts and campaign contributions from state lobbyists were constitutional, and that plaintiffs—one sitting state senator and one legislative candidate—lacked standing to challenge the corresponding restrictions on lobbyists themselves.
The Fifth Circuit ruled against the Plaintiffs in this case challenging the Hattiesburg City Council wards under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision, finding that the ward plan adopted after the 2010 census does inhibit African-American voters' opportunity to participate in the electoral process. CLC represented the Plaintiffs on appeal.
On May 21, 2019, the en banc D.C. Circuit rejected all three of the Libertarian Party’s constitutional challenges to the federal contribution limits, finding that the First Amendment does not require “as applied” exceptions from facially valid contribution limits for supposedly non-corruptive bequests, and upholding the higher special-purpose “cromnibus” limits as a valid “tweak in Congress’s decades-long project to fine-tune” our campaign finance laws. The decision reaffirms that contribution limits are permissible preventative anti-corruption measures and that courts should defer to Congress’s empirical judgments about where precisely to set the dollar amounts of such limits.
In August 2017, CLC received a series of documents in response to a FOIA request regarding the Pence-Kobach Commission. United States District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is now ordering the government to release the names of three individuals that were selectively redacted by the government in an email that played a role in the formation of the Pence-Kobach Commission.
The judge ordered Texas counties not to remove any person from the current voter registration list until authorized by the court.
The Supreme Court granted North Carolina's emergency application to stay the decision by the lower court, which struck down its maps and ordered them to be redrawn.
On February 6, 2018, the Supreme Court denied CLC's motion for an expedited oral argument. Justice Ginsburg and Justice Sotomayor would grant the motion.
On July 31, 2018, the Michigan State Supreme Court issued its opinion in the Michigan redistricting ballot initiative case. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's decision, allowing the redistricting measure to be voted on by Michigan's citizens in November, 2018.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania entered an order in the Pennsylvania gaming industry campaign contribution restriction case. The court is striking down a Pennsylvania law that bars casino owners and others with a stake in the gambling industry from donating to political campaigns in the state.
The Supreme Court of the State of Washington entered an order in Seattle's public financing system case after finding that the case warrants direct review under the cited statute.
On Friday, January 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it was taking two partisan gerrymandering challenges, out of North Carolina and Maryland. Oral arguments were scheduled for March 2019.
On January 4th the Court issued an opinion and order granting in part and denying in part the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted narrow relief from Gwinnett County's policy of rejecting absentee ballots solely on the basis of an omitted or incorrect birth year.
The district court in Maine denied plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the results of the election conducted using Ranked Choice Voting.