Press Release

September 20, 2013 — The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA) of Pennsylvania filed a response today to the Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s motion to disregard their amicus brief in the PA voter ID case Applewhite v. Pennsylvania.

“The steps taken by state attorneys to disregard the brief are highly unusual,” said Jerry Vattamala, staff attorney at AALDEF. “Our brief, which demonstrates that PA’s new voter ID law would disenfranchise Asian Americans at a disproportionately high rate, must be taken into account by the Court in making a decision that affects the fundamental voting rights of so many Asian Americans.”

AALDEF’s amicus brief, properly filed in the PA State Supreme Court, is based on findings from AALDEF’s election monitoring data from 2012 and prior elections. The brief provides evidence from AALDEF’s poll monitoring that PA’s new voter ID law would continue to lead to overt or implicit discrimination against Asian Americans at the polls. Moreover, it contends that the Commonwealth has made no significant attempt to provide Asian American citizens of limited English proficiency with information about the new voting law. Read more about the brief here >

The amicus brief was filed on August 30, 2013. On September 6, attorneys for PA took the unusual steps of (1) filing a motion to disregard the amicus brief and (2) in the same motion, attempted to rebut the arguments made in the amicus brief.

The response to the motion was prepared by AALDEF, APABA-PA, and pro-bono counsel White & Case LLP.

Download the response to the motion to disregard here >

Contact:
Ujala Sehgal
212.966.5932 x217
usehgal@aaldef.org