Federal judge dismisses lawsuit challenging Shapiro’s automatic voter registration policy
A federal court judge has dismissed a civil rights lawsuit filed by more than two dozen Republican state lawmakers that challenged Gov. Josh Shapiro’s automatic voter registration policy.
Judge Jennifer P. Wilson of the U.S. District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania last week ruled that the lawmakers did not have standing to bring a lawsuit because they couldn’t prove they were harmed individually by Shapiro’s policy.
“Plaintiffs do not have standing to assert the institutional injuries they raise here,” Wilson wrote in her 27-page opinion. “The injuries that plaintiffs allege are suffered equally by each Pennsylvania legislator. As such, plaintiffs have not alleged any individualized and particularized harm.”
In September, Shapiro instituted a new policy for residents obtaining or renewing driver licenses and ID cards at the state Department of Transportation.
Under the new system, all Pennsylvania residents who seek to renew or obtain new driver’s licenses or photo IDs through PennDOT are automatically taken through the automatic voter registration process unless they “opt out.”
Previously, residents had to “opt in” to register to vote. Twenty-three other states, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, have automatic voter registration.
As of March 30, the Department of State reports that a total of 181,727 new and renewal applications for driver’s licenses and photo IDs automatically flowed into the automatic voter registration system since its inception on Sept. 19, 2023.
Of that number, 71,230 resulted in new voter registrations. The breakdown was 21,717 Democrats, 24,632 Republicans and 24,881 “other.”
The lawsuit was filed by more than two dozen members of the state House of Representatives, including Dawn Keefer (92nd District) and David Rowe (85th District), who are leaders of the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus. Sen. Cris Dush was the only senator in the group. No Lehigh Valley lawmakers are listed as plaintiffs.
The lawsuit alleges that the lawmakers’ individual civil rights were violated under the Electors Clause and Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Under the clauses, the lawsuit says, the state legislature is the body that should be making decisions about elections – not Shapiro.
As members of an entity with authority, they said they had the right to make individual claims.
The 33-page lawsuit was also filed against President Joe Biden, Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt and Jonathan Marks, deputy secretary for elections and commissions.
In the case of Biden, the lawsuit alleges the Democratic president usurped their rights with Executive Order 14019, which requires all federal agencies to develop a plan to increase voter registration and voter participation.
Republicans sue Gov. Shapiro over automatic voter registration
Schmidt and Marks were sued for directives that the lawsuit alleges violate state law, including one issued in 2018 that the state said was based on federal law. It advised counties not to reject voter registration applications solely if the applicant’s driver’s license or Social Security number didn’t match those in comparison databases.
In her on March 26 opinion, Wilson, a 2019 Trump appointee, said the “binding precedent” obligated her to reject their claim of individual injury.
Wilson wrote, “... as the descriptions of their alleged injuries make clear, they are seeking to vindicate injuries that would be suffered by the Legislature as a whole.”
She noted that the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as a whole, has the ability to challenge the executive actions. “However, twenty-seven Plaintiffs, may not seek to vindicate that institutional injury without the approval of the institution,” she said.
Wilson further wrote, “[A] vague, generalized allegation that elections, generally, will be undermined, is not the type of case or controversy that this court may rule on under Article III [of the U.S.Constitution].” Article III covers the judicial branch.
Shapiro hailed Wilson’s ruling in a statement.
“In 2020, I defeated Donald Trump and his conspiracy theorist allies in court more than 40 times to defend Pennsylvanians’ votes and protect access to the ballot box,” said Shapiro, who served as state attorney general prior to his election as governor.
“Today, we’ve done it again by getting their frivolous effort to stop automatic voter registration in our Commonwealth dismissed,” he said. “Automatic voter registration is safe, secure, efficient, and entirely within my Administration’s authority.”
The Freedom Caucus could not be reached for comment.
The group was formed shortly after the November 2022 election when Shapiro was elected governor and Democrats won 12 seats in the House, giving them their first, albeit slight, majority since 2010.
The group is part of the State Freedom Caucus Network, whose website says, “From Election Integrity to Critical Race Theory, the most important fights of today are happening in the states. SFCN will provide conservatives in state capitals nationwide the resources they need to win.”
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Keefer issued a press release, saying, “The citizens of Pennsylvania have been victimized by extraordinary overreach of executive officials who have made changes to election laws with no authority to do so.”
Besides Keefer, Rowe and Dush, the other lawmaker plaintiffs are Timothy Bonner, Barry Jozwiak, Barbara Gleim, Joseph Hamm, Wendy Fink, Robert Kauffman, Stephanie Borowicz, Donald “Bud” Cook, Paul “Mike” Jones, Joseph D’Orsie, Charity Krupa, Leslie Rossi, David Zimmerman, Robert Leadbetter, Daniel Moul, Thomas Jones, David Maloney, Timothy Twardzik, David Rose, Joanne Stehr, Aaron Berstine, Kathy Rapp, Jill Cooper, Marla Brown and Mark Gillen.