Experience

Obtained a significant victory in January 2020, on behalf of Priorities USA and two Missouri voters in a lawsuit challenging the state’s newly-enacted voter ID law under the Missouri constitution. The law imposed new restrictions on voters who lacked photo ID by requiring them to execute an inaccurate and misleading affidavit, stating among other things that photo ID was required by law, in order to cast a regular ballot. Following a bench trial in September 2018, the circuit court judge struck down the affidavit requirement as unconstitutional, and permanently enjoined the state from disseminating advertisements or publishing materials that suggest photo ID is required to vote. On the state’s appeal, the Perkins Coie team successfully defended the judgment in the Missouri Supreme Court, which held that the voter ID law’s affidavit requirement was misleading, contradictory, and unconstitutional. The ruling was a complete victory for Priorities USA and the plaintiffs in the voter ID lawsuit. As a result, Missouri law now provides several different options for voting, with or without photo ID, that are more expansive than any voter ID law implemented in the state since 2002.