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Litigation

Harkless v. Blackwell

Case Information

Date Filed / Ended: September 21, 2006 / February 3, 2009
State: Ohio
Issue: Voter Registration
Courts that Heard this Case: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Case 1:06-cv-02284-PAG); U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit (Case 07-3829)

Issue:

Whether Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and other state officials have violated the National Voter Registration Act by failing to make voter registration applications available at certain social service agencies.

Status:

Motion to Dismiss Granted 12/28/06. Motion for Reconsideration of Opinion filed 1/12/07.  Appeal filed 6/6/07.    Opinion Reversing and Remanding entered on 10/28/08.  Motion to extend time to file petition for rehearing en banc filed 11/7/08.  Motion granted 11/14/08.

Court of Appeals Documents

  • BRIEFING LETTER SENT setting briefing schedule: appellant brief due 8/7/07 ; appellee brief due 9/10/07 ; reply brief due 9/27/07; appendix due 10/4/07 ; all final briefs due 10/25/07 (entered 6/28/07)
  • Briefing Letter Sent by CONFERENCE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE resetting briefing schedule: appellant brief now due 8/21/07 ; appellee brief due 9/24/07; reply due 10/11/07; joint appendix due 10/18/07; all finals due 11/8/07 (entered 7/9/07)
  • Statement of Issues (filed 7/12/07) [not available].
  • Briefing Letter Sent by CONFERENCE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE resetting briefing schedule: appellant brief now due 9/24/07 ; appellee brief now due 10/29/07 ; reply brief now due 11/15/07; appendix now due 11/26/07 ; all final briefs now due 12/17/07 (entered 8/7/07)
  • BRIEFING LETTER SENT resetting briefing schedule: appellant brief now due 10/26/2007. appellee brief now due 12/10/2007. joint appendix now due 01/04/2008. final appellant brief now due 01/24/2008. final appellee brief now due 01/24/2008 (entered 10/11/07)
  • APPELLANT PROOF BRIEF (filed 10/29/07) [not available]
  • AMICUS BRIEF filed by Mr. Dirk C. Phillips PDF (filed 11/7/07)
  • APPELLEE PROOF BRIEF (filed 12/12/07) [not available]
  • Appellant MOTION to extend time to file brief (filed 1/14/08) [not available]
  • LETTER SENT granting motion to extend time to file brief (entered 1/16/08) [not available]
  • PROOF REPLY BRIEF filed by Appellants (filed 1/22/08)
  • APPELLEE PROOF BRIEF (filed 2/1/08)
  • APPELLEE FINAL BRIEF (filed 2/5/08)
  • APPELLEE FINAL BRIEF (filed 2/19/08)
  • FINAL REPLY BRIEF PDF (filed 2/19/08)
  • Oral argument date set for 9:00 a.m. June 12, 2008 PDF (4/11/08)
  • Oral argument acknowledgement filed by Attorney Mr. Henry G. Appel for Appellee Helen E. Jones-Kelley . [07-3829, 07-4165] (filed 4/22/08)
  • Oral argument acknowledgement filed by Attorney Mr. Neil A. Steiner for Appellants Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Tameca Mardis and Carrie Harkless. [07-3829, 07-4165] (filed 4/22/08)
  • Oral argument acknowledgement filed by Attorney Mr. Michael D. Meuti for Appellee Jennifer Brunner. [07-3829, 07-4165] (filed 4/22/08)
  • CAUSE ARGUED by Mr. Neil A. Steiner for Appellants Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. (filed 6/12/08)
  • OPINION filed: REVERSED and REMANDED PDF (entered 10/28/08)
  • JUDGMENT: REVERSED and REMANDED PDF (enterd 10/28/08)
  • MOTION to extend time to file petition for rehearing en banc PDF (filed 11/7/08)
  • RULING granting motion to extend time to 11/25/2008 to file a petition for rehearing en banc PDF(entered 11/14/08)
  • MANDATE ISSUED PDF(entered 2/3/09)

District Court Documents

Commentary

Donald B. Tobin

FAQ on social welfare organizations

Donald B. Tobin

The Frank E. and Virginia H. Bazler Designated Professor in Business Law and a senior fellow at Election Law @ Moritz explains the nuances of social welfare organizations and federal regulations related to them.

more commentary...

In the News

Donald B. Tobin

How Did The IRS Get The Job Of Vetting Political Activity?

Professor Donald Tobin was interviewed by the Boston NPR station on its show Here & Now about the Internal Revenue Service's investigation into groups classified as social welfare organizations (marked by the 501(c)(4) tax classification). The IRS was in search of groups that are not focusing primarly on the social welfare of the country, but have a strong political advocacy facet. Political advocacy groups might want to be classified as 501(c)(4) organizations because under that classification they do not have to disclose their donors.

"The key is if you going to be engaged in candidate-type advocacy, and if you're going to intervene in elections and engage in election advocacy, we want disclosure of who your donors are," Tobin said.

“What groups are trying to do here is avoid having to disclose,” Tobin continued. “By earning the classification of social welfare, they’re avoiding the campaign disclosure that’s required for political organizations. So that’s really the underpinning of why we have this mess of the IRS having to get in and investigate and figure out whether an organization is political or not.”

more EL@M in the news...

Info & Analysis

Ohio House Committee Recommends Upholding Landis' Election Victory

Yesterday, an Ohio House of Representatives committee recommended 5-4 that the Ohio House uphold the election victory of Republican State Representative Al Landis over Democratic challenger Josh O'Farrell. In February, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the O'Farrell v. Landis record to the House for consideration. According to an article in the Canton Repository, committee chairman and State Representative Matt Huffman said he expects a vote by the full House later this month.

more info & analysis...