Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Fourth Amendment Violation – Voting Registration

By: Derek Hawkins//August 8, 2017//

Fourth Amendment Violation – Voting Registration

By: Derek Hawkins//August 8, 2017//

Listen to this article

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Patrick Harlan, et al. v. Charles W. Scholz, Chairman, Illinois State Board of Elections, et al.

Case No.: 16-3547; 16-3597

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Fourth Amendment Violation – Voting Registration

This is a case of wait‐and‐hurry‐up, rather than its more familiar cousin, hurry‐up‐and‐wait. With just two and a half months before the November 2016 general election, Patrick Harlan, the Republican Party’s candidate for an Illinois congressional seat, and the Crawford County (IL) Republican Central Committee, filed this lawsuit and promptly sought a preliminary injunction against the implementation of a state law that allows voters to register and vote on Election Day itself. Generally speaking, the law gives more options for same‐day registration and voting for residents of counties with populations of 100,000 or more than it does for those who live in smaller counties. The plaintiffs contended that the difference violated their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The district court agreed with them and issued the injunction; this court granted a stay of that injunction. We now vacate the preliminary injunction altogether.

Vacated and Remanded

Full Text


Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests