Kramer Levin Helps League of Women Voters Block Florida's Voter Registration Law: New York Law Journal Recognizes Firm's Pro Bono Role

The New York Law Journal quoted litigation associate Craig L. Siegel in a September 1, 2006 article about Kramer Levin’s lead role in winning a federal injunction barring Florida from enforcing a new state law that had forced non-partisan groups to stop registering voters, including firm client the League of Women Voters.

Judge Patricia Seitz of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida enjoined the enforcement of the Florida voter registration law on August 28, finding that the law unconstitutionally violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment speech and associational rights of plaintiffs League of Women Voters and other non-profit organizations and individuals. The ruling cleared the way for the immediate resumption of voter registration efforts in anticipation of the upcoming November elections.

Following a two-day hearing at which Siegel and Erin Walter took the lead for plaintiffs, Judge Seitz found that the state has "not provided any evidence much less an explanation for the necessity" for the burdensome provisions that halted plaintiffs' registration of voters in Florida, including "heavy fines" and "the imposition of joint and several liability on volunteers [and] their organizations." The Court further held that the Florida law's exemption of political parties from its definition of third party voter registration organizations is "based on...unjustified underinclusiveness and Defendants' failure to identify any relevant, real world differences between political parties and non-partisan groups" with respect to voter registration and also "discriminates against third party organizations based upon their non-association with political parties."

The Kramer Levin team, led by partner Eric A. Tirschwell and Siegel, included senior litigator Erin A. Walter and associates David A. Landman and Emily J. Groendyke. Partner Jeffrey S. Trachtman assisted at the preliminary injunction hearing. Summer associates Pamela Swidler, Kathleen Pirozzolo, Amelia Martella, Joseph Shifer and Abdul-Rahman Lediju also assisted on the matter. Among the co-counsel for the litigation were the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law and the Advancement Project.

The efforts by Kramer Levin’s attorneys were also recognized in reports published by the New York Times, Washington Post, FOXNews.com, ABC.news.com, Forbes.com, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated Press and the Guardian in the U.K., among other news outlets.