No. 23-1017

Marc Thielman, et al. v. Lavonne Griffin-Valade, Oregon Secretary of State, et al.

Lower Court: Ninth Circuit
Docketed: 2024-03-15
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: ballot-security ballot-trafficking chain-of-custody election-integrity election-process public-confidence signature-verification standing-doctrine vote-by-mail voter-confidence voter-rolls
Key Terms:
SocialSecurity DueProcess Trademark Privacy JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2024-05-16
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Do Petitioners have standing to challenge Oregon's vote-by-mail election system due to the loss of their freedom caused by Oregon's confidence-destroying election processes?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTION PRESENTED Confidence in elections directly corresponds to individual freedom. When the public is confident that election processes generate fair outcomes, citizens are free because they govern themselves. On the other hand, when elections are widely understood as unfair (such as in Iran or Venezuela), citizens do not govern themselves and they are not free, despite the public show of elections. The degree of public confidence in election processes is the yardstick for measuring the degree of freedom enjoyed by every citizen. As Justice Thomas has noted: “{E]lections enable self-governance only when they include processes that ‘giv[e] citizens (including the losing candidates and their supporters) confidence in the fairness of the election.” Republican Party v. Degraffenreid, 141 S.Ct. 732, 734 (2021) (Thomas, J. dissenting from denial of certiorari) (emphasis added). In seeking to enjoin aspects of Oregon’s election system, Petitioners assert actual injury to their freedom due to the extraordinary characteristics of that system, characteristics which chill honest public participation and make any political remedy via that same election system impossible to attain. QUESTION Do Petitioners have standing to challenge Oregon’s vote-by-mail election system due to the loss of their freedom caused by Oregon’s election processes?

Docket Entries

2024-05-20
Petition DENIED.
2024-04-30
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/16/2024.
2024-04-04
Waiver of right of respondent Lavonne Griffin-Valade to respond filed.
2024-03-11
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 15, 2024)

Attorneys

Lavonne Griffin-Valade
Benjamin Noah GutmanOregon Department of Justice, Respondent
Marc Thielman, et al.
Stephen J. JoncusJoncus Law P.C., Petitioner