Service Employees International Union, Local 1 v. Husted

906 F. Supp. 2d 745, 2012 WL 5334080
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedOctober 26, 2012
DocketCase Nos. 2:12-CV-562, 2:06-CV-896
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 906 F. Supp. 2d 745 (Service Employees International Union, Local 1 v. Husted) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Service Employees International Union, Local 1 v. Husted, 906 F. Supp. 2d 745, 2012 WL 5334080 (S.D. Ohio 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

ALGENON L. MARBLEY, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

These are two related actions in this Court: Service Employees’ International Union, Local 1, et. al. v. Husted, et. al., Case No. 2:12-cv-562 (“the SEIU case”) and The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, et. al. v. Husted & State of Ohio, Case No. 2:06-cv-896 (“the NEOCH case”). Before the Court are three distinct motions: (1) SEIU Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for Preliminary Injunction with Respect to Wrong-Location Provisional Ballots (SEIU Dkt. 84); (2) NEOCH Plaintiffs’ Motion to Modify April 19, 2010 Consent Decree (NEOCH Dkt. 338) and; (3) NEOCH Defendants’ Motion to Modify April 19, 2010 Consent Decree (NEOCH Dkt. 342). SEIU Plaintiffs promptly renewed their Motion in light of the Sixth Circuit’s Decision of October 11, 2012, affirming in part and reversing in part this Court’s injunction on the issues of “right-location, wrong-precinct” provisional ballots and provisional ballots with deficient affirmations. NEOCH v. Husted, 696 F.3d 580 (6th Cir.2012) (“the NEOCH appeal”). Following that remand, Plaintiffs and Defendants in the NEOCH case each moved to modify the April 19, 2010 Consent Decree. As these cases were consolidated for the purpose of appeal, the Court continues to recognize that consolidation on remand. Owing to the pendency of the November 6, 2012 election, at Defendants’ request, the Court ordered an expedited briefing schedule for these motions and heard oral argument on October 24, 2012. These issues have been fully briefed and are now ripe for decision.

II. STATEMENT OF FACTS

A. The NEOCH Case

The SEIU case and the NEOCH case, the subjects of a preliminary injunction and consent decree respectively, are both actions originally brought in this Court. Plaintiffs in both cases are groups of interested voters suing on behalf of their members to prevent the Secretary of the State of Ohio from disqualifying provisional ballots in the November 6, 2012 election, an [748]*748alleged violation of Plaintiffs’ members’ constitutional rights.

The NEOCH case began in 2006, when Plaintiffs challenged Ohio’s amended voter identification laws. The parties initially-resolved the lawsuit, prior to a final adjudication on the merits, by entering a consent decree on April 19, 2010 (“the Consent Decree”). The Consent Decree, “among other provisions, mandated that the Board [of Elections] ‘may not reject a provisional ballot cast by a voter, who uses only the last four digits of his or her social security number as identification’ [“SSN-4 ballots”] if certain deficiencies in the ballot, including being cast ‘in the wrong precinct, but in the correct polling place,’ were the result of poll-worker error.” Hunter v. Hamilton Cnty. Bd. of Elections, 635 F.3d 219, 233 (6th Cir.2011) (“Hunter I ”) (quoting Consent Decree, at ¶ 5). This Court upheld the validity of Consent Decree earlier this year, a ruling affirmed in part and remanded in part by the Sixth Circuit in the NEOCH appeal, issued on October 11, 2012. NEOCH, 696 F.3d 580. Following the remand, Plaintiffs and Defendants both moved to modify the Consent Decree, based on the Sixth Circuit’s holding that treating SSN^l ballots differently from provisional ballots obtained using other forms of identification likely violated equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 14.

B. The SEIU Case

During the ongoing NEOCH litigation, in early 2012, a group of organizations sued Ohio Secretary of State Husted to challenge Ohio’s rules governing the counting of provisional ballots. This Court’s previous decision, SEIU Local 1 v. Husted, 887 F.Supp.2d 761, 2012 WL 3643064 (S.D.Ohio Aug. 27, 2012) granted Plaintiffs’ request to enjoin the Secretary from disqualifying “right location, wrong precinct” provisional ballots resulting from “poll-worker error,” an injunction upheld in the NEOCH appeal. NEOCH, 696 F.3d at 597-98.

The facts giving rise to the case are discussed in the prior decision. SEIU Local 1, 887 F.Supp.2d at 768-77, 2012 WL 3643064 at *2-10. On appeal, however, the Sixth Circuit vacated a portion of the preliminary injunction which required the Secretary to count provisional ballots east with deficient affirmations, deficiencies which this Court found to be due to poll-worker error. NEOCH, 696 F.3d at 599-601. To support the instant Motion, Plaintiffs have combed the State’s “Incident Reports” from recent elections to identify numerous examples of poll-worker error causing provisional ballots cast in the wrong location, wrong precinct.1 They rely on their voluminous evidentiary record discussed in this Court’s previous SEIU decision. SEIU Local 1, 887 F.Supp.2d at 768-77, 2012 WL 3643064 at *2-10. Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for Preliminary Injunction seeks to expand the scope of this Court’s prior “right location, wrong precinct” injunction to likewise enjoin the Secretary from disqualifying ballots cast in the wrong location and in the wrong precinct (“ ‘wrong location, wrong precinct’ ballots”) due to poll-worker error.

III. SEIU PLAINTIFFS’ RENEWED MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

A. Standard for Granting Preliminary Injunction

Plaintiffs’ Motion, to enjoin the Secretary from enforcing certain provisions of Ohio law in the upcoming November 6, 2012 election, invokes the four-factor [749]*749balancing test for determining whether an injunction is appropriate under Fed. R.Civ.P. 65. The Court must weigh the following factors:

(1) whether the movant has a strong likelihood of success on the merits;
(2) whether the movant would suffer irreparable injury without the injunction;
(3) whether issuance of the injunction would cause substantial harm to others; and
(4) whether the public interest would be served by the issuance of the injunction.

Hunter I, 635 F.3d at 233. These four factors “guide the discretion of the district court[;]” however, “they do not establish a rigid and comprehensive test.” Friendship Materials, Inc. v. Michigan Brick, Inc., 679 F.2d 100, 102 (6th Cir.1982). Whether the combination of the factors weighs in favor of issuing injunctive relief in a particular case is left to the discretion of the district court. See Leary v. Daeschner, 228 F.3d 729, 739 (6th Cir.2000); see also Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U.S.

Related

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61 V.I. 416 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
906 F. Supp. 2d 745, 2012 WL 5334080, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/service-employees-international-union-local-1-v-husted-ohsd-2012.