In partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project (ACLU VRP) and the ACLU of South Carolina, Proskauer filed a lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP of South Carolina and individual South Carolina voters seeking to enjoin three South Carolina voting laws that restrict absentee voting and voter assistance. South Carolina’s restrictions are similar to laws enacted by several other states, but the new South Carolina laws conflict with—and thus are pre-empted by—federal law, specifically by Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended (VRA), which provides that voters who are blind, disabled, or unable to read or write can obtain assistance from a person of their choosing when voting.
South Carolina
Proskauer Files Amicus Briefs in Support of Voting Rights
Proskauer teams recently submitted amicus briefs in two critical voting rights cases, which are becoming increasingly important in the runup to the 2024 U.S. elections. On August 18, 2023, Proskauer submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court on behalf of 30 historians and legal scholars specializing in the history of the Southern U.S. with a focus on South Carolina, race relations and election laws. The brief was submitted in support of appellees in Alexander v. The South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Then, on September 25, 2023, Proskauer filed— on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU Foundation of Florida, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund— an amicus brief in the Third District Court of Appeal of Florida in support of the appellee in the case of State of Florida v. Miller.