Yang v. Kosinski

Summary

The Second Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction requiring the New York State Board of Elections to reinstate all qualified Democratic presidential candidates to the ballot and hold the presidential primary, after the Board removed all candidates except Joe Biden and effectively canceled the election. Applying the Anderson-Burdick balancing test, the court held that the Board's action—removing ten of eleven candidates based on a newly enacted statute (N.Y. Elec. Law § 2-122-a(13))—unduly burdened the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of candidates and their pledged delegates to associate and vote, and that the state's justifications (public health and resource concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic) were insufficient to justify the burden. The court did not decide whether strict scrutiny applied, but found plaintiffs clearly likely to succeed on the merits even under the more lenient standard.

Holdings

1. The Board's decision unduly burdened the plaintiffs' rights of free speech and association, and the Board's justifications (protecting public health during the COVID-19 pandemic and conserving resources) were insufficient to justify the burden.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the plaintiffs-appellees demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the Board's decision to remove candidates and cancel the presidential primary unduly burdened their rights of free speech and association under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
2. Whether the balance of equities and public interest favored the preliminary injunction.

Disposition

affirmed