On December 17, 2024, a Nevada state court ruled that the NAACP Tri-State Conference of Idaho-Nevada-Utah has “significant, protectable interests” in the outcome of a lawsuit to unlawfully purge Nevada’s voter rolls, and has granted its motion to intervene as a defendant in the case. 

The lawsuit was filed by the Trump campaign and Republican parties just weeks before the November 2024 general election, in which they baselessly claimed that thousands of noncitizens are listed on the official Nevada voter rolls and have voted in previous elections in a bid to force the state to remove thousands of lawfully registered citizens from their voter rolls.  The Tri-State NAACP sought intervention to protect potentially thousands of citizens from disenfranchisement, including naturalized citizen members who are most at risk of having their voter registration invalidated by this lawsuit. 

In the December 17 order, the court ruled:

“Insofar as the object of Plaintiffs’ claims is to purge from Nevada’s statewide voter registration list certain voters who are alleged to be illegally registered, Tri-State NAACP has a legitimate and significant interest in participating in this litigation for the purpose of protecting its members from inadvertent or improper removal from that list.” 

Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, the Democratic National Committee, and the Nevada Democratic Party– other defendants named in this case–have filed motions to dismiss, which are pending before the court. 

“We are pleased to see the court ensure that the voice of voters will be heard in this case,” says Amira Mattar, Counsel at Free Speech For People. “We are proud to represent the Tri-State NAACP, whose hard, historical work protecting the right to register and vote must not now be jeopardized by baseless claims about the noncitizen community.” 

There is no evidence of widespread noncitizen voter activity in Nevada or anywhere in the United States. But Trump, Vance and aligned groups have circulated the lie that noncitizens vote in federal elections in order to compel states to purge their voter rolls, disenfranchise citizens, and lay the foundation to baselessly claim election fraud when they dislike the voters’ choices. Several cases have been brought in states across the country based on similar debunked theories. 

Free Speech for People is proud to represent the Tri-State NAACP, alongside co-counsel Mayer Brown LLP, and local counsel Woodburn & Wedge. 

To read the court’s order, click here. 

To visit our Dagusen v. Aguilar case page, click here.