Case Study #2: Curling v. Raffensperger

Issue Summary:

Prior to the 2020 election, Plaintiffs filed dozens of lawsuits and injunctions against the Secretary of State and Georgia election officials. We represented various Defendants, including the Georgia Secretary of State. In one of those cases, Plaintiffs persuaded a federal judge to enter an injunction against the state, requiring changes in paper pollbook backups used by county election officials.  Our team immediately appealed the order, and the Eleventh Circuit stayed the order in October 2020 pending its full review.

Issue Outcome:

Following argument in May 2022, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the district court improperly attempted to alter Georgia’s election processes. Judge Britt Grant, for a panel that included Judges Robert Luck and Lanier Anderson, explained that the Plaintiffs were “asking the courts to redline the already reasonable voting policy the State has in place. That is not our role. The district court thus erred when it replaced those policies with the ‘better’ option offered by the plaintiffs: a mandate to use an electors list that is updated and printed on a somewhat later date.”