Mi Familia Vota v. Abbott II

As Free Speech For People’s complaint states, “Texas’s new voter suppression law, 2021 Texas Senate Bill No. 1, 87th Legislature (“SB 1”), is a calculated effort to disenfranchise voters. If allowed to stand, the bill will unconstitutionally burden qualified voters and inevitably prevent many voters from lawfully casting their ballots in future elections.”

SB 1 violates the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It uses the following measures to suppress votes:

• prohibiting drive-through voting
• limiting voting hours
• making it unlawful for counties to automatically mail eligible voters mail-in ballot applications
• implementing stricter rules for voting by mail
• allowing election officials to reject allegedly defective ballots without notice to the voter prior to the election
• implementing monthly purges of voter rolls
• limiting physical and language assistance at the polls
• enabling partisan poll watchers, which creates increased risk of voter intimidation.

Texas has a history of discriminating against Latino and Black voters. SB 1 was a response to the increased voter turnout in the 2020 election. Free Speech for People represents Mi Familia Vota in this challenge of SB 1, to protect the right to vote in Texas. Free Speech For People is pleased to partner with the law firms of Stoel Rives and Lyons & Lyons in this litigation.

Mi Familia Vota and individual voters v. Abbott was consolidated with four other cases and renamed La Union del Pueblo Entero v. Abbott.

In August 2022, the district court denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss. In May 2023, the Fifth Circuit ruled that the voting rights organization plaintiffs could not obtain copies of legislators’ communications with outside parties, because they are protected by “legislative privilege.” The case is set to proceed to the first phase of trial on September 11, 2023.