An Obama-appointed federal judge has handed Marc Elias, the Democratic Party’s go-to election lawyer, another litigation loss after his law firm sought to stop a Wyoming law from imposing proof-of-citizenship and -residency requirements in the state’s voting registration process.
The civil complaint, filed in early May by the Elias Law Group on behalf of the Equality State Policy Center, unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of H.B. 156, an election security law requiring proof of United States citizenship and state residency when registering to vote in Wyoming’s elections.
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Judge Scott W. Skavdahl, an Obama appointee, dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday due to the plaintiff’s lack of constitutional standing.
Under Title III of the U.S. Constitution, to establish grounds to sue, plaintiffs must demonstrate “a concrete and particularized injury” that the injury is “fairly traceable” to the defendant’s conduct and that a favorable court decision will redress the injury.
In a 17-page ruling dismissing the case without prejudice, meaning it can be brought again, Skavdahl found that the Equality State Policy Center failed to demonstrate a personal stake in the matter, showing that “at least one identified member [of the organization] had suffered or would suffer harm” from H.B. 156’s registration requirements.
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Skavdahl noted that the Equality State Policy Center, a coalition of “social justice” groups in Wyoming offering voter outreach services, such as documentation assistance to the Hispanic community, is not a voter itself and thus “not the object or target of H.B. 156.”
As for suing in a representational capacity, Skavdahl said the cohort is comprised of member organizations and far removed from individual members. Despite the degrees of separation, the plaintiff still did not point to a person specifically aggrieved, Skavdahl said.
In an interview Wednesday with the Washington Examiner, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, whom the Equality State Policy Center had sued as Wyoming’s chief elections officer, applauded the case outcome.
“We’re leading the nation on this issue. This marks a huge victory for the people of Wyoming and the truth,” Gray told the Washington Examiner. “Marc Elias was no match for this vigorous defense. We put together a great team.”
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Gray, a Republican, thanked the Trump administration and the Republican National Committee for supporting the state in this case. The U.S. Department of Justice submitted a statement of interest siding with Wyoming, and the RNC moved to intervene and join Gray as a defendant.
Dhillon Law Group, the law firm of Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s civil rights division, served as Gray’s outside counsel.
In a public statement celebrating the lawsuit’s dismissal, Gray had hailed H.B. 156 as “common-sense” legislation in line with President Donald Trump’s agenda on election integrity reform.
H.B. 156, a state-level version of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act that’s progressing through Congress, requires prospective registrants to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship or Wyoming residency, such as a driver’s license, a U.S. passport, a birth certificate, or naturalization paperwork.
Effective July 1, the bill became law without the signature of Gov. Mark Gordon (R-WY), who refused to sign it.
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In the thrown-out suit, the Equality State Policy Center had contended that H.B. 156 was “far more likely” to disenfranchise U.S. citizens who may be unable to provide the necessary documentation than prevent non-citizens from unlawfully voting.
Invoking the history of women’s suffrage in Wyoming, the first U.S. state to grant women the right to vote, the complainant claimed that female voters, married women in particular, would face barriers at the registration booths because of marital name-changes.
Among others purportedly without access to acceptable forms of ID, the Equality State Policy Center asserted that those “disproportionately” affected by the Wyoming bill include the state’s homeless population, low-income individuals whose licenses were suspended on account of unpaid fines, youth aging out of the juvenile justice system and child welfare programs, strictly Spanish-speaking Hispanic citizens, and transgender voters who legally changed their identities.
Gray said the statute is not discriminatory.
“The Left trots out these slogans that are false, and we debunked them in our response,” Gray told the Washington Examiner. “This law is applied equally to everybody and is non-discriminatory. Everybody is equal under the rule of law. These sorts of worn-out narratives that are false that the Left brings up, we countered those in our response, and we won.”
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The now-granted motion to dismiss said that the plaintiff relied exclusively on “a slew of hypothetical scenarios premised on speculative arguments.” According to the defense’s filing, no evidence identified a single, and otherwise qualified, Wyoming resident who would be barred from registering to vote under H.B. 156’s regulations.
Skavdahl agreed Tuesday that the Equality State Policy Center’s claims were “broad, conclusory allegations lacking factual substance.”
Elias losing the Wyoming non-citizen voting case marks his second election-related legal defeat in recent weeks.
Elias tried to block a law banning foreign actors from funneling money into ballot initiatives in Kansas.
Representing the foreign-funded Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, a coalition of abortion-rights activists, the Elias Law Group argued that the ban at issue infringed on the free speech rights of those who accept foreign-traced funds and then lobby in favor of or against a specific policy position.
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On June 30, a different Obama-appointed federal judge issued a scathing ruling squashing the plaintiff’s bid to block the campaign finance bill, which prohibits donations from foreign nationals in support or defeat of proposed amendments to the Kansas constitution.
“Kansas has identified a compelling interest in preventing foreign influence in Kansans’ decisions about its foundational governing document,” the court ruled.
The Washington Examiner contacted The Elias Law Group for comment.