In the Press

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Richmond Times-Dispatch logo

Rights restoration under Youngkin drops again (opens a new window)

  • March 24, 2024
  • Richmond Times-Dispatch

Last year, the ACLU of Virginia, along with voting rights group Protect Democracy and law firm WilmerHale, sued the administration, election officials and some local registrars seeking a U.S. District Court ruling that denying people who have been convicted of felonies violates the 1870 federal law that readmitted Virginia to the union after the Civil War.

florida record logo

Florida blocked from enforcing its restrictions on ‘woke’ workplace training (opens a new window)

  • March 20, 2024
  • Florida Record

“After the decision by the trial court and this unanimous panel of the 11th Circuit, four federal judges have now come to the unremarkable conclusion that the Stop WOKE Act – a law whose title announces its intent to discriminate based on viewpoint – does indeed discriminate based on viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment,” Shalini Agarwal, the plaintiffs’ lead counsel in the case, told the Florida Record.

Federal judge says lawsuit challenging Virginia’s felony disenfranchisement can move forward (opens a new window)

  • March 19, 2024
  • WRIC-TV

“For more than a century, Virginia has been openly defying federal law by illegally depriving its citizens of the fundamental right to vote,” Jared Davidson, counsel at Protect Democracy, said in a statement. “As a direct and intentional result, generations of Virginians, especially Black Virginians, have been denied the equal opportunity to cast their ballots.”

truthout logo

Lawsuit Challenging Virginia’s Felony Disenfranchisement Laws Moves Forward (opens a new window)

  • March 19, 2024
  • Truthout

Last summer, residents of Virginia who are currently disallowed from voting based on their past felony convictions filed the lawsuit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Protect Democracy and other voting rights organizations. They allege that a federal law passed to allow Virginia to have representation in Congress after the Civil War forbids the state constitution and other laws passed by the state legislature from enacting stricter standards for voting than had previously existed.

Judge rules lawsuit challenging Virginia provision stripping felons of voting rights can move forward (opens a new window)

  • March 19, 2024
  • WRIC-TV

“The state of Virginia has been openly defying that law for well over a century by stripping anyone convicted of any felony whatsoever of their voting rights permanently,” said Jared Davidson, Counsel for Protect Democracy.

These legal proceedings began after Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) changed the way convicted felons could have their rights restored.

State Newsroom Logo

To boost Trump, GOP attorneys general charge into battle over state election rules (opens a new window)

  • March 18, 2024
  • News from the States

By itself, making the materiality provision harder to use would likely have only a limited impact, since it hasn’t been among the tools most commonly used to protect voting rights, noted Cameron Kistler, counsel at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan democracy advocacy group.

But, he said, it comes in the context of other ongoing conservative legal attacks on voting protections — including attempts to weaken the Voting Rights Act, and suggestions by the Supreme Court that it may lower the level of scrutiny it applies to voting laws that are accused of harming voters.