Last Updated: May 16, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Florida v. US
Case Information
Date Filed: August 1, 2011
State: Florida
Issues: Voter Registration, Early Voting
Current Court: The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Case 1:11-cv-1428 )
Issue:
Whether certain sections of Florida's newly-passed voting reforms violates Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
Status:
Complaint filed 8/01/11.
See also League of Women Voters of Florida v. Browning
District Court Documents
- Complaint
(filed 8/1/11) - Application for 3-Judge Court (filed 8/1/11)
- Order Granting 3 Judge Panel (filed 8/9/11)
- Motion for Leave to Intervene by Sullivan (filed 8/30/11)
- Motion to Intervene by La Raza and League of Women Voters (filed 9/9/11)
- Attorney General's Response to Motion to Intervene (filed 9/13/11)
- State of Florida's Opposition to Motion to Intervene (filed 9/16/11)
- NAACP's Motion in Support of Intervention (filed 9/20/11)
- La Raza's Motion in Support of Intervention (filed 9/23/11)
- Amended Complaint for Declaratory Judgment (filed 10/11/11)
- Answer to Complaint (filed 10/19/11)
- Order Granting Motion to Intervene (filed 10/19/11)
- Answer to Complaint by NAACP (filed 10/19/11)
- Answer to Complaint by La Raza (filed 10/19/11)
- Second Amended Complaint (filed 10/25/11)
- Answer to Second Complaint by NAACP (filed 10/28/11)
- Answer to Second Complaint by Attorney General (filed 10/28/11)
- Motion for Protective Order on Governing Confidential Information (filed 12/22/11)
- Order Granting Motion for Protective Order (filed 12/29/11)
- Notice of Ancillary Proceedings (filed 1/25/12)
- Motion to Compel the Deposition of Florida Secretary of State Browning (filed 2/13/12)
- Opposition to Motion to Compel the Deposition of Florida Secretary of State Browning (filed 2/14/12)
- Reply to Opposition to Motion to Compel the Deposition of Florida Secretary of State Browning (filed 2/15/12)
- Opinion and Order Regarding Motion to Compel the Deposition of Florida Secretary of State Browning (filed 2/16/12)
- Jointly Stipulated Facts (filed 3/05/12)
- Stipulation of Dismissal of Second Amended Complaint (filed 3/23/12)
- Joint Stipulated Facts (filed 4/13/12)
- Proposed Findings of Fact (filed 5/3/12)
PDF files in this site require
Commentary
Provisional Ballots, Consent Decrees, and the Balance Between the Federal and State Governments
Owen Wolfe
A recent mandamus action filed by the Ohio Senate President and House Speaker Pro Tempore to require the Ohio Secretary of State to rescind directives issued in response to a consent decree issued in a federal case dealing with counting provisional ballots raises questions about the mechanics of state election law, the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the relationship between federal and state courts, the law of consent decrees, and more. I have attempted in this article to grapple with these issues in a fair and unbiased manner. Given the complexity of this problem, however, these matters are open to a variety of interpretations and this is just one approach. I hope, however, that this article can provide a useful starting point for a discussion about the future of provisional voting in Ohio and in the nation at large.
This paper is a first look by a student member of the Election Law @ Moritz team and reflects one possible perspective on the issue. Stay tuned, as more analysis from the team will follow as the litigation develops. Owen Wolfe is affiliated with the Ohio Democratic Party and the Obama ’12 campaign, but is not in any way associated with any litigation team working on this case. EL@M has posted the document because we believe it has public value and adds to the discourse on this topic.
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