Defending the Right to Vote

Our firm has been at the forefront of safeguarding the right to vote. On Election Day 2024, in conjunction with several non-profit partners, roughly 70 Paul, Weiss attorneys across all departments came together to engage in nonpartisan poll monitoring in four states: Pennsylvania; Michigan; Nevada; and California. In addition, attorneys engaged in remote poll monitoring for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

• In a major voting rights victory, in May 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a lower court ruling that would have blocked Louisiana’s newly enacted congressional map, which includes a second majority-Black district for the 2024 congressional election. The stay, which enabled the map to go into effect for the 2024 election, followed years of litigation led by Paul, Weiss and co-counsel the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the ACLU and the Harvard Election Law Clinic. The case, Robinson v. Callais (consolidated for argument with Louisiana v. Callais), is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, where Paul, Weiss and co-counsel are handling merits briefing and oral argument for the 2024-2025 term. Among other issues, the case involves the extent to which a state can consider race alongside political considerations in remedying an identified Voting Rights Act violation.
• Separately, Paul, Weiss, alongside the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, filed an amicus brief in Merrill v. Milligan, a case challenging Alabama’s 2022 congressional districts under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, on behalf of the NAACP Louisiana State Conference, the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, and eight Louisiana voters. Describing Louisiana’s history of racially discriminatory voting practices and more recent laws and practices, such as disparate access to polling locations and felony disenfranchisement, amici argue that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act remains a critical potential remedy for Black voters in Louisiana and elsewhere who continue to face significant obstacles to full political participation. The Court heard the case in October.
• Ana Flores, et al. v. Town of Islip: We negotiated a favorable settlement in a federal voting rights lawsuit on behalf of Latinx residents of Islip, Long Island on the eve of trial in October 2020, ending an at-large voting system that denied Latinx residents representation.