Ropes & Gray and ACLU Secure Preliminary Injunction in Mass. Voting Rights Case, Permitting Plaintiffs to Vote in Presidential Election

A Ropes & Gray team, serving as co-counsel to the ACLU, secured a preliminary injunction in challenging Massachusetts’ 20-day cutoff for voter registration. A Suffolk Superior Court Judge preliminarily found that the state’s law disenfranchised the three individual plaintiffs in the case and he ordered the Secretary of State to allow plaintiffs to cast provisional ballots in the November 8 election.

“In short, the present state of the record shows no real reason, grounded in data, facts, or other evidence, why the Commonwealth accomplishes anything by implementing a 20-day deadline that deprives the individual plaintiffs of their right to vote,” Suffolk Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins wrote in his decision.

The Ropes & Gray team working on a pro bono basis as co-counsel to the ACLU includes government enforcement associate Patrick Welsh.

To read coverage from The Boston Globe, click here (subscription required).

To read coverage from Law360, click here (subscription required).

To read Ropes & Gray’s announcement that was published when the case was filed, click here.