REBECCA BEACH SMITH, District Judge.
On February 16, 2010, the plaintiff, Project Vote/Voting For America, Inc. ("Project Vote"), filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief ("Complaint") against the defendants, Elisa Long ("Long") and Nancy Rodrigues ("Rodrigues"). On October 29, 2010, this court denied the defendants' Motion to Dismiss the Complaint ("Motion to Dismiss"), brought pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (6). See Project Vote/Voting for Am., Inc. v. Long, 752 F.Supp.2d 697, 712 (E.D.Va.2010). On November 10, 2010, Rodriguez and Long answered the Complaint. Donald Palmer ("Palmer") became the Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections on January 28, 2011, and, thus, was substituted for Rodriguez as a named defendant by operation of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25(d). (See Mem. Order 1 n. 1, ECF No. 56.) On January 31, 2011, the plaintiff filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. On March 1, 2011, Palmer and Long responded, and the plaintiff replied on March 16, 2011. On June 10, 2011, the court convened for a status conference and directed that any further submissions regarding the Motion for Summary Judgment, or any proposed consent decree resolving the matter, be filed on or before July 1, 2011. (See id. at 1.) Pursuant to that direction, the defendants filed an Affidavit of Elisa Long on June 24, 2010,
The relevant factual history is set forth in detail in the court's October 29, 2010, Opinion, and need not be repeated in full herein. See Project Vote, 752 F.Supp.2d at 698-701. In brief review, Project Vote and Advancement Project, a national civil and voting rights organization with which Project Vote works, sought to inspect and obtain copies of
In the Complaint, the plaintiff alleges that the NVRA's Public Disclosure Provision requires that the Requested Records be available to the public for inspection because they are records "`concerning the implementation of programs or activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters.'" (Id. ¶ 29 (quoting 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-6(i) (1)).) Additionally, to the extent that the Virginia statute limits the availability of the Requested Records to the public for inspection and photocopying, it is superseded by the NVRA, pursuant to the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. Therefore, the plaintiff asks the court to: 1) declare that the defendants are in violation of the NVRA; 2) declare that the NVRA preempts Virginia Code § 24.2-444, and any other Virginia law or regulation stating the same; 3) "[p]ermanently enjoin Defendants from refusing to permit access to any requesting party for copy and/or inspection of voter registration applications and related records, as sought by Project Vote in this matter"; and 4) award Project Vote the costs incurred in pursuing this action, as authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-9(c). (Id. at 11.)
In the Motion for Summary Judgment, the plaintiff asserts that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law based upon the court's previous holding that the Public Disclosure Provision grants the plaintiff certain access to the Requested Records. See Project Vote, 752 F.Supp.2d at 712. The defendants contend that they are entitled to summary judgment based upon their previous arguments, which the court rejected in its Opinion of October 29, 2010, as well as upon several new arguments. Both defendants argue that the court's previous construction of the Public Disclosure Provision is "inconsistent with two other federal statutes which seek to protect the confidentiality of voter registration information and is contrary to the Congressional purpose underlying all three laws: the encouragement of voting." (Palmer's Mem. in Opp. to Mot. for Summ. J. 2, ECF No. 51; see Long's Mem. in Opp. to Mot. for Summ. J. 11, ECF No. 52 [hereinafter "Long's Opp."]). Long also argues that "the Court failed to define the plain meaning of the operative phrase `programs and activities,' or to review the use of those terms in context," (Id. at 3), and analysis of that phrase "reveals that Congress did not intend to mandate disclosure of voter registration applications." (Id. at 2.)
Summary judgment is appropriate when a court, viewing the record as a whole and
The defendants rightly anticipate that the court adheres to its rejection of the defendants' previous arguments for nondisclosure of the Requested Records, and so they raise purportedly new arguments in an effort to persuade the court that its prior ruling was wrong. Long argues that the court "ignor[ed] the plain meaning of the phrase `programs and activities,' and its contextual meaning in the overall statutory scheme." (Long's Opp. 6.) The court understands that Long disagrees with the court's prior ruling, but Long is mistaken. In assessing the statute's common and ordinary meaning, the court found that "a program or activity covered by the Public Disclosure Provision is one conducted to ensure that the state is keeping a `most recent' and errorless account of which persons are qualified or entitled to vote within the state." Project Vote, 752 F.Supp.2d at 706; see id. (finding that "[t]he process by which the Commonwealth determines whether a person is eligible to vote" is "by its very nature, [] designed to ensure that the Commonwealth's lists are current and accurate" (emphasis added)). Furthermore, in looking to the specific context of the statutory language, the court found that "programs and activities" is not limited to maintenance of lists. See id. at 708-09 (discussing why the defendants' position "is not borne out in the statute"). In sum, the court squarely assessed the plain meaning of "programs and activities," and, therefore, Long's argument does not persuade the court to abandon its prior ruling.
Both Palmer and Long argue that the court's prior ruling is inconsistent with two other federal statutes—the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment ("MOVE") Act, which amended the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act ("UOCAVA"), 42 U.S.C.
The defendants also revisit their previous argument that disclosing the Requested Records, even with the voters' social security numbers ("SSN") redacted, will chill voter registration applications and frustrate the overall purpose of the NVRA. For the same reasons set forth in the court's previous ruling, the court disagrees. See Project Vote, 752 F.Supp.2d at 709-712.
The court is not persuaded that it should abandon its prior ruling. Accordingly, the court adopts and incorporates in full the reasoning set forth in its Opinion of October 29, 2010, and, for the reasons stated in that Opinion and above,
The NVRA's Public Disclosure Provision grants the plaintiff access to completed voter registration applications with the voters' SSNs redacted for inspection and photocopying. Furthermore, to the extent that any Virginia law, rule, or regulation forecloses disclosure of completed voter registration applications with the voters' SSNs redacted, the court
The court now addresses the plaintiff's request for injunctive relief. In order to obtain a permanent injunction, "a plaintiff must demonstrate: (1) that is has suffered an irreparable injury; (2) that remedies available at law, such as monetary damages, are inadequate to compensate for that injury; (3) that, considering the balance of hardships between the plaintiff and defendant, a remedy in equity is warranted, and (4) that the public interest would not be disserved by a permanent injunction." eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, 391, 126 S.Ct. 1837, 164 L.Ed.2d 641 (2006). The defendants do not contest that the plaintiff is entitled to injunctive relief, if the Public Disclosure Provision grants it access to completed voter registration applications with the voters' SSNs redacted, and the court so finds. Considering the ubiquity of voting in our representative democracy, there is a "real and immediate threat" that members of the public, like the plaintiff, may again be wrongfully denied the statutory right to inspect and photocopy completed voter registration records with the voters' SSNs redacted. See City of L.A. v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 111, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983) (remarking that an injunction is "unavailable absent a showing . . . of any real or immediate threat that the plaintiff will be wronged again"); Belk v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 269 F.3d 305, 347 (4th Cir.2001) ("Before a court grants a permanent injunction, the court must find necessity—a danger of future violations." (citations omitted)). Accordingly, the irreparable injury prong is met. Similarly, there is no genuine issue that monetary damages are insufficient to compensate for denial of a statutory right to access completed voter registration applications. See E. Tenn. Natural Gas Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d 808, 823 (4th Cir.2004) ("[W]hen a substantive right exists, an equitable remedy may be fashioned to give effect to that right if the prescribed legal remedies are inadequate." (citations omitted)). The balance of hardships does not weigh in favor of the defendants, as a permanent injunction will simply compel the defendants to comply with their responsibilities under the NVRA and, thus, will prevent them from denying the public of a statutory right.
In this case, while the public interest weighs in favor of a permanent injunction, it also limits the injunction's scope. Long argues that the court should "stay disclosure of the 2008 voter registration applications pending a final resolution of this dispute, because applicants submitted those applications with the expectation of privacy." (Long's Reply to PL's Supplemental Mem. 1, ECF No. 62.)
The public interest will be served if the defendants are permanently enjoined from refusing to permit inspection and photocopying of completed voter registration applications with the voters' SSNs redacted to the extent such applications are completed subsequent to final judgment in this case.
The court
42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-6(i)(1) (emphasis added).