Murray v. Cuomo

• Decision Date: 16 May 2020
• Docket Number: 1:20-cv-03571-MKV
• Citation: 460 F.Supp.3d 430
• Parties: Scherie S. MURRAY, Plaintiff, v. Andrew CUOMO, as Governor of the State of New York, Board of Elections in the City of New York, Jose Miguel Araujo, Miguelina Camilo, Gino A. Marmorato, Michael Michel, Simon Shamoun, Tiffany Townsend, John Zaccone, as Commissioners, Board of Elections in the City of New York, New York State Board of Elections, Peter S. Kosinski, Douglas A. Kellner, Andrew J. Spano, as Commissioners, New York State Board of Elections, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

460 F.Supp.3d 430

Scherie S. MURRAY, Plaintiff,

v.Andrew CUOMO, as Governor of the State of New York, Board of Elections in the City of New York, Jose Miguel Araujo, Miguelina Camilo, Gino A. Marmorato, Michael Michel, Simon Shamoun, Tiffany Townsend, John Zaccone, as Commissioners, Board of Elections in the City of New York, New York State Board of Elections, Peter S. Kosinski, Douglas A. Kellner, Andrew J. Spano, as Commissioners, New York State Board of Elections, Defendants.

1:20-cv-03571-MKV

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed May 16, 2020

Filed May 18, 2020

Richard St. Paul, Law Office of Richard St. Paul Esq., PLLC, White Plains, NY, for Plaintiff.

Matthew Lawrence Conrad, New York State Office of the Attorney General, New York, NY, for Defendants Andrew Cuomo, New York State Board of Elections.

Stephen Edward Kitzinger, New York City Law Depart. Office of the Corporation Counsel, New York, NY, for Defendant Board of Elections of the City of New York.

OPINION & ORDER DENYING TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER

MARY KAY VYSKOCIL, United States District Judge:

Plaintiff, an active member of the Queens Republican Party, seeks to challenge certain modifications to the New York Election Law put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which she claims violate her constitutional rights. Ms. Murray seeks to stand for nomination as the Republican Party candidate for New York's Fourteenth Congressional District, the seat now held by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In brief, she challenges certain modifications to ballot-access provisions of the election law (specifically, reducing the number of days she had to gather signatures, but not the corresponding modification to reduce the number of signatures required to appear on the ballot), and her failure to meet the revised requirements, on the ground that they violate her rights to stand as a candidate in the June 23, 2020 primary election. Of particular importance, this is Ms. Murray's second attempt to use the courts to have her name placed on the June 23 ballot. Previously, Ms. Murray filed an action in New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, in which she unsuccessfully asserted substantially the same claims she asserts here together with other claims based on New York Election Law. See In re Murray v. Hanratty , Case No. 260205/2020 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Bronx Cty.).¹

The Complaint in this case [ECF #4] ("Cpl.") was filed on May 7, 2020, a full seven weeks after the modifications to the Election Law were made. Along with the Complaint, Plaintiff filed a proposed order to show cause and request for a temporary restraining order, supported by a memorandum of law [ECF #3, Ex. A] ("Pl. Br."), an affirmation from Plaintiff's counsel [ECF #2, Ex. 1] (the "St. Paul Affidavit") and an affidavit sworn by the Plaintiff. [ECF #3, Ex. B.] ("Murray Affidavit"). By her application, Plaintiff seeks a declaration of her rights and an injunction ordering the New York State and City Boards of Elections to place her name on the ballot and ordering those bodies not to print or distribute ballots without her name on them. The next day, the Court issued a modified order to show cause, calling for Defendants to respond and setting a hearing on Plaintiff's injunctive relief application [ECF #6]. On May 12, 2020, Defendants each filed a response. First, Defendants Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Board of Elections, and the commissioners of that body (collectively the "State Defendants") filed a memorandum of law [ECF #10] (the "State Opp."), along with a Declaration of counsel with supporting exhibits [ECF #10, Exs. 1-2] ("Conrad Decl."). Second, the New York City Board of Elections and the commissioners of that body (the "City Defendants") filed a letter response with several supporting exhibits [ECF #8] (the "City Opp."). On May 13, 2020, the Plaintiff filed a reply brief [ECF #12] (the "Reply Br.") and an affirmation of counsel with exhibits [ECF #11] ("Reply Aff."). The Court heard argument on the application on May 15, 2020 (the "May 15 hearing").

Upon review of the Plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order and supporting papers, Defendants’ materials submitted in opposition, and the parties’ arguments during the May 15 hearing, and after due consideration, the Motion for a temporary restraining order is DENIED. This opinion supplements the Court's ruling on the record at the May 15 conference.

BACKGROUND

The Court assumes the truth of the facts as stated in Plaintiff's complaint. See Fair Hous. in Huntington Comm. Inc. v. Town of Huntington , 316 F.3d 357, 362 (2d Cir. 2003).

Plaintiff is a Jamaican-born resident of Queens, New York who has been a registered member of the Republican Party since 2009. Cpl. ¶ 11, 13. In addition, Ms. Murray has stood as the Republican candidate for multiple state offices, and has been involved in the executive leadership of the Queens Republican Party. Cpl ¶ 14-18. In 2019, Plaintiff decided that she would like to run as the Republican Party candidate for U.S. Congress from New York's Fourteenth Congressional District, a district comprising parts of both Queens and Bronx counties and currently represented in Congress by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Cpl. ¶ 21. Leadership of the Queens Republican Party, however, disapproved of this plan and instead recommended that Ms. Murray seek the Republican Party nomination for New York's Fifth Congressional District, located in Queens and Nassau counties. Cpl. ¶ 22. The Queens Republican Party conditioned their institutional support of Ms. Murray on her seeking nomination for the Fifth District, and not the Fourteenth. Cpl. ¶¶ 22, 27.

Undeterred by the loss of institutional party support, Plaintiff resolved to seek a place on the ballot on her own. To appear on a primary ballot in New York, state law prescribes that a candidate must submit a "designating petition" which includes a certain number of signatures of registered members of the candidate's party. See N.Y. Election Law § 6-132(1), 6-136. For a primary election, the Election Law provides that a candidate must collect a number of signatures equal to five percent of the registered members of the party in the relevant political unit (e.g. , congressional district, council district, ward, or statewide). See N.Y. Election Law § 6-136. All signatures must be witnessed by another registered member of the candidate's party. See N.Y. Election Law § 6-132(2). Additional information about each signer (for example, address and date of signature) is required, see N.Y. Election Law § 6-130, and certain restrictions also apply to designating petitions as a whole (for example, requiring "wet" signatures and certain restrictions on how to correct misinformation). See N.Y. Election Law § 6-134. Candidates must file their designating petitions with the Board of Elections on a time frame set forth in state law. See N.Y. Election Law § 158(1) ("A designating petition shall not be filed earlier than the thirteenth Monday before, and not later than the twelfth Thursday preceding the primary election."). Signatures on the designating petitions may not be dated (and indeed, no candidate may collect signatures) more than thirty-seven days before the last day to file the designating petition. See N.Y. Election Law § 6-134(4). Following the candidate's filing of his or her designating petition, any voter eligible to vote in the election in question may file objections to the designating petition. See N.Y. Election Law § 6-152(2). The local board of elections (in this case, the Board of Elections in the City of New York) will review and pass judgment on any objections. That determination by the Board of Elections is subject to judicial review by the New York Supreme Court, the decision of which is then appealable in the normal course. See N.Y. Election Law §§ 6-154, 16-102

All parties agree that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to New Yorkers’ daily lives and the functioning of government. In response to the pandemic, Defendant Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, issued a series of executive orders aimed at containing the spread of the disease. Among them, on March 14, 2020, Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.2 which reduced the amount of time available to collect designating petition signatures. Cpl. ¶ 37. The original last day to collect signatures was April 2, 2020; Executive Order 202.2 set the new deadline as March 17, 2020. Id. The Executive Order also made a corresponding reduction in the number of signatures—from five percent of the registered party members in the district to one and one-half percent—required for a designating petition under Section 6-136 of the New York Election Law. Cpl. ¶ 38. The effect was to reduce the number of signatures Plaintiff was required to collect from 1,250 to 375. Cpl. ¶ 48; see also State Opp. at 20-21. On March 18, the New York State Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, legislation which ratified the Governor's order and constituted a formal change to the Election Law. Cpl ¶ 40; see also State Opp. at 7-8. In addition to those measures, the legislation also set a new deadline of March 20, 2020 for submission of designating petitions to the Board of Elections and eliminated "the option to file an opportunity to ballot petition in the June 2020 primary election." Cpl. ¶ 40.

Because Executive Order 202.2 was issued on March 14, Plaintiff had only three days remaining to finish collecting signatures for her designating petition before the new March 17 deadline. Cpl. ¶ 41. She states that as a result of other COVID-19 response measures, including the Governor's stay-at-home order, she was unable to gather any additional signatures between March 14 and March 17. Cpl. ¶ 41-42. Consistent with the new deadlines, Plaintiff filed her designating petition with the New York City Board of Elections on March 20, 2020. Cpl. ¶ 43. When it was filed, Plaintiff's designating...