On May 4, 2023, Simpson Thacher client Voter Participation Center secured a significant First Amendment victory following a bench trial on a paper record in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. The Court’s ruling, which follows a 2021 entry of a preliminary injunction, permanently blocked the enforcement of anti-voter provisions in H.B. 2332, protecting voter access to personalized advance mail ballot applications in Kansas. In her decision in the case, VoteAmerica v. Schwab, Judge Kathryn Vratil ruled that the challenged parts of H.B. 2332 are “an unconstitutional infringement on plaintiff’s First Amendment rights to speech and association” as well as “unconstitutionally overbroad.”
In June 2021, the Firm, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Kansas attorney Mark Johnson filed the suit challenging two anti-voter provisions in H.B. 2332 on behalf of the two nonprofit charitable organizations which engage with voters to facilitate voting by mail as a safe and secure option to exercise the right to vote. In November 2021, the team secured a preliminary injunction with a federal court temporarily blocking the challenged provisions. Following the entry of the preliminary injunction, in February 2022, the court permanently enjoined by a stipulated order one of the challenged provisions, which prohibited the distribution of advance mail ballot applications by out-of-state persons/entities, finding that the ban violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
The Simpson Thacher team includes Jonathan Youngwood, Meredith Karp, Bonnie Jarrett, Nicole Palmadesso and Damian Gallagher.
The team received a “Shout Out” in The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” coverage. The win was reported by several media outlets, including the Associated Press, The Kansas Reflector and The Topeka Capital-Journal.