Case Summary

On June 30, 2020, People Not Politicians Oregon filed a federal lawsuit against Oregon’s Secretary of State challenging the state’s ballot measure signature gathering requirements and deadline, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as violating their constitutional rights. Plaintiff, which had failed to collect the required number of petition signatures by the July 2, 2020, deadline, argued that enforcing the state’s ballot initiative requirements in light of the ongoing pandemic infringed upon their 1st and 14th Amendment rights to ballot access, political speech, and political participation. They sought an injuncting barring the ballot initiative signature and deadline provisions from being enforced or a court order requiring their initiative to be placed on the ballot.

  • On July 10, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Secretary of State to either place the plaintiff’s initiative on the 2020 ballot or move the signature filing deadline back to August 17, 2020, and reduce the number of signatures required to 58,789. On July 13, the Secretary chose to delay the deadline and reduce the number of signatures required.
  • On July 15, 2020, Oregon’s Attorney General – but not its Secretary of State – appealed the injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit denied a request for an emergency stay on July 23, 2020. The Oregon Attorney General filed an application for stay with the U.S. Supreme Court six days later, arguing only the state government had authority to lower the number of ballot measure signatures required.
  • On August 11, 2020, SCOTUS granted an emergency stay on the preliminary injunction ruling.
  • On September 2, 2020, the Ninth Circuit held there was insufficient time to resolve the case’s legal issues prior to the 2020 election and, therefore, the plaintiff’s measure wouldn’t appear on the 2020 ballot. The court remanded the case back to the district court to determine whether the claims would be moot after the 2020 election.
  • On June 10, 2021, the district court, on remand, granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case as moot.

Case Library

U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Eugene Division - 6:20-cv-01053

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 20-35630

Supreme Court of the United States - 20A21