Settlement agreement document.

The applications to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on October 14, 2014, presented to Justice Scalia and by him referred to the Court are denied. The motion for leave to file the response to the applications under seal with redacted copies for the public record is granted. 

By this order, the district court enjoined the implementation of Texas Senate Bill 14 (“SB 14”) of the 2011 Regular Session, which requires that voters present certain photographic identification at the polls. The district court also ordered that the State of Texas (“State”) instead implement the laws that were in force before SB 14’s enactment in May of 2011. Based primarily on the extremely fast-approaching election date, we STAY the district court’s judgment pending appeal.

This expedited appeal, which included briefing and oral argument, involves Texas’s recently enacted Voter ID law, which True the Vote supported and sponsored as a public-interest group. Various plaintiffs’ groups and the United States have sued the state, claiming the law violates the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Several other groups were permitted to intervene on behalf of the plaintiffs. True the Vote timely moved to intervene as of right to defend the statute. The United States opposed the motion, and the district judge, without issuing an independent opinion but relying almost exclusively on a Florida court order in a different case, denied intervention. Because True the Vote has not shown that the State of Texas cannot adequately represent its interests in this litigation, we affirm the order denying intervention as of right. 

Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 52(a), after hearing and carefully considering all the evidence, the Court issues this Opinion as its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The Court holds that SB 14 creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose. The Court further holds that SB 14 constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax. 

The U.S. Supreme Court today unanimously held in Evenwel v. Abbott that all people count for the purpose of drawing voting districts, not just eligible voters.

In Wolfson v. Concannon, the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld Arizona rules involving campaigns for judicial office. Prior to the en banc proceedings, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel had invalidated the challenged rules—which include provisions restricting judicial candidates from personally soliciting political contributions or endorsing, speaking in favor of or campaigning for non-judicial candidates—as they applied to non-incumbent judicial candidates. Invoking the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar, the en banc court held that Arizona’s rules are narrowly tailored to its compelling interest in upholding public confidence in the judiciary.

In Van Hollen v. FEC, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit once again upheld an FEC rule that severely limits federal disclosure requirements connected to “electioneering communications.” The appellate panel overturned a district court decision holding the rule “arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law” for improperly narrowing the scope of the McCain-Feingold law’s disclosure requirements and allowing nonprofit 501(c)(4) advocacy groups, 501(c)(6) business associations, and others to spend millions on “electioneering communications” without disclosing their donors.

The application for stay presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the Court is granted, and the Montana Supreme Court’s December 30, 2011, decision in case No. DA 11-0081, is stayed pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari. 

This appeal is limited to facial challenges to the constitutionality of various Election Code provisions.  “A party seeking to invalidate a statute ‘on its face’ bears a heavy burden of showing that the statute is unconstitutional in all of its applications.” Facing cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court ruled against appellants King Street Patriots (KSP), Catherine Engelbrecht, Bryan Engelbrecht, and Diane Josephs, the parties facially challenging the constitutionality of the Election Code provisions. The trial court concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to consider some of appellants’ constitutional challenges and, as to the remaining challenges, the trial court upheld the constitutionality of the Election Code provisions at issue. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.