Reed Smith, Dechert, Weil Gotshal, Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block are all challenging Texas’ new voting law through several lawsuits filed this week and last week in Austin, San Antonio and Houston.
Four are in federal court in the Western District of Texas’ Austin and San Antonio divisions, while one is in state court in Harris County. The lawsuits are primarily on behalf of advocacy groups for minorities and people with disabilities. Three were filed Tuesday and two were filed Friday. All five lawsuits name various election officials as defendants. Most of them name Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Secretary of State Jose Esparza as defendants.
The lawsuits say that the various limitations imposed by Texas State Legislature’s SB1, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday, illegally discriminate against disabled voters and voters of color. The new limitations imposed by SB1 includes restrictions on early voting hours and the distribution of mail-in ballot applications, a ban on 24-hour voting and drive-thru centers and possible penalties for voter assistants, including criminal felonies.
Here’s more information on the allegations, parties, law firms and lawyers behind each lawsuit:
Perkins Coie lawsuit: WDTX, Austin; 1:21-cv-00786
On Tuesday, John Hardin of Perkins Coie’s Dallas office, fellow Dallas lawyer Domingo Garcia and San Antonio lawyer Luis Roberto Vera Jr. teamed up with Seattle and Washington, D.C.-based lawyers from the Elias Law Group to file a lawsuit on behalf of LULAC Texas and Voto Latino — two Latino voter advocacy organizations — and Texas Alliance for Retired Americans and Texas AFT — a nonprofit advocating for civil rights of retirees and a statewide labor union for teachers, respectively.
Filed Tuesday in Austin federal court, the lawsuit says SB1 violates the First and 14th Amendments and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“The Legislature enacted SB1 not to preserve election integrity or combat election fraud — after all, the State’s own election officials have acknowledged that elections in Texas are already secure — but rather to stem the growing tide of minority voter participation by weaponizing the false, repeatedly debunked accusations of widespread voter fraud advanced by supporters of former President Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit says. “It is no coincidence that SB1 passed just months after Texas Republican Party leaders, including the state’s governor, attorney general, and members of its congressional delegation, tried and failed to overturn the presidential election results and disenfranchise millions of voters in other states.”
Dechert lawsuit — 189th Judicial District, Harris County; 2021-57207
Lawyers from Dechert’s Austin and New York offices teamed up with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Tuesday to file their lawsuit in Harris County District Court. They represent the Texas State Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause Texas, three election judges, one voter assistant and one registered voter in Harris County.
Leading the Dechert team is New York partner Neil Steiner, and the team also includes Austin counsel Lindsey Cohan.
“Texas’s new voting restrictions targeting voters of color are an affront to our democracy,” Steiner said in a statement. “We remain committed to ensuring that all eligible voters have a true opportunity to participate in our elections by casting a ballot safely, securely and conveniently, with confidence that their votes will be counted.”
Austin lawyer Gary Bledsoe of The Bledsoe Law Firm is also involved.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is represented by some of its in-house lawyers based in Washington, D.C.
“Viewed individually or collectively, these provisions of SB1 gravely threaten the fundamental right to vote of all Texans, but they will hit hardest in communities of color,” the lawsuit says. “This is precisely what the legislature intended.
“By effectively prohibiting drive-thru voting, extended voting hours (including overnight voting), and return of mail-in ballots to ballot drop boxes, SB1 strips power from local election officials to implement lawful ways for more voters to be able to cast ballots, as Harris County election officials did in 2020.”
Reed Smith lawsuit — WDTX, San Antonio; 5:21-cv-00848
Texas lawyers from Reed Smith teamed up with Washington lawyers with the NAACP and The Arc of the United States, an advocacy organization for the disabled, for their lawsuit, filed Tuesday in San Antonio federal court. They represent the Houston Area Urban League, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and The Arc, who allege SB1 violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act.
Reed Smith’s team includes partner Ken Broughton and associates Lora Spencer and Keeley Dulaney from the firm’s Houston office and partner Sarah Cummings from the firm’s Dallas office.
“Reed Smith joined this lawsuit because this law denies and dilutes the voting rights of many Americans,” Broughton told The Texas Lawbook. “Its clear goal is to inhibit voter participation by certain groups of our citizens. It is un-American from beginning to end.”
Weil lawsuit — WDTX, San Antonio; 5:21-cv-00844
Dallas lawyers from Weil Gotshal teamed up with city attorneys for Harris County and New York and Washington lawyers from Fried Frank to file a lawsuit Friday in San Antonio federal court on behalf of the Harris County elections administrator, a 2020 election judge and a cluster of membership and community-based organizations that predominantly represent the interests of Latino and Black Texans.
“SB1 is a reaction to Texas’s changing electorate, which is now more racially diverse and younger than ever before,” the lawsuit says.
Weil’s primarily Dallas-based team is led by partner Liz Ryan and also includes partner Paul Genender and associates Megan Cloud and Matthew Berde. New York associate Alex Cohen is also on the case, who is licensed in Texas and attended SMU for law school and TCU for undergrad.
The legal team for Isabel Longoria, Harris County’s elections administrator, includes Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and assistant county attorneys Jonathan Fombonne, Sameer Birring, Radiah Rondon and Susannah Mitcham and managing counsel Tiffany Bingham.
San Antonio lawyer Nina Perales of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, one of the plaintiffs, is also involved.
Jenner & Block lawsuit — WDTX, Austin; 1:21-cv-00780
Washington, D.C. lawyers from Jenner & Block teamed up with Texas-based lawyers for the Texas Civil Rights Project, ACLU of Texas and Disability Rights Texas to file a lawsuit Friday in Austin federal court on behalf of OCA-Greater Houston, League of Women Voters of Texas, REVUP-Texas, the Texas Organizing Project and the Workers Defense Action Fund.
Their lawsuit says SB1 “takes particular aim” at voters with disabilities, voters with limited English and the organizations that support these voters.
“Under SB1, a voter who needs assistance to cast their ballot will not be able to ask their assistant questions without risking that their assistant be prosecuted for a felony; a blind voter cannot receive assistance navigating the polling place; a voter who inadvertently transposes two digits of their driver’s license number will have their ballot thrown out; and community organizers are left to guess whether something they say at their neighbors’ doors could land them in jail.”
The Texas-based lawyers include Austin attorneys Mimi M.D. Marziani, Ryan Cox and Hani Mirza of the Texas Civil Rights Project; Houston attorneys Thomas Buser-Clancy, Savannah Kumar and Andre Segura of the ACLU Foundation of Texas; and Austin attorneys Lia Sifuentes Davis and Lucia Romano of Disability Rights Texas.