Robert D. Fram

Public Interest Practice

Voting Rights Cases

• Ohio Redistricting Litigation. The firm succeeded in invalidating the map for the state legislature as violating the Ohio Constitution, securing five successive victories before the Ohio Supreme Court. We also invalidated the map for congressional districts, again as violating the Ohio Constitution, and did so twice. We served as co-counsel to the ACLU in this litigation. Mr. Fram was lead counsel for the firm.
• Preventing Election Subversion in 2022. We organized a team of lawyers to prepare for potential efforts to overturn the election in a key battleground state in 2022, including detailed legal analyses and the taking of witness statements on election day. Mr. Fram was the firm's lead counsel in this matter.
  
• Ohio A. Phillip Randolph Institute et al. v. Smith et al. (S.D. Ohio 1:18:-cv-00357 TSB). The firm represented plaintiff the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, and 16 individual plaintiffs from each of Ohio's congressional districts in this federal court action challenging Ohio’s current congressional redistricting plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that violates the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I of the United States Constitution. We prevailed at trial. The judgment was subsequently vacated in light of the subsequent determination by the Supreme Court that partisan gerrymandering claims are non-justiciable. Rob served as the firm's lead trial counsel.
  
• Vote Forward et al. v. DeJoy et al. (D.D.C. 20-cv-2405 EGS) . On behalf of voting rights organizations and individual plaintiffs, the firm brought suit against the United States Postal Service to secure the timely delivery of mail ballots in connection with the 2020 general election and the 2021 Georgia Runoff election. Plaintiffs were successful in securing a preliminary injunction requiring the USPS to institute measures to assure the timely delivery of such ballots.
• Harding et al. v. Edwards et al. (M.D. LA 3:20-cv-00495-JWD-SDJ). In connection with the 2020 general election, the firm represented plaintiffs suing to expand the right to vote by mail and the period for early voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. We secured a preliminary injunction providing for the right to vote by mail for all voters with co-morbidities related to COVID-19 and their caretakers as well as a ten day early voting period.
• Collins et al. v. Adams et al. (W.D. KY 3:20-cv-00375-CRS). In connection with the 2020 election the firm represented plaintiffs seeking to expand the right to vote by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case settled following the agreement by the state to expand the right to vote by mail.
• Prevention of voter intimidation in connection with the 2020 Election. Rob led the firm's efforts to prevent voter intimidation in connection with the November 2020 election. We organized teams in seven states to address such threats. We also prepared mandamus petitions in the event that state officials wrongly refused to certify the results of certain elections.
  
• Greater Birmingham Ministries et al v. State of Alabama et al. Rob serves as Covington’s lead counsel in a challenge to Alabama’s Photo ID Law. Our case contends that the Alabama statute violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as well as the United States Constitution. The case was filed in December 2015. Following a grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants the case was appealed to the 11th Circuit. The judgment was affirmed by a panel of that Court; en banc proceedings are pending.
• Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People et al. v. Missouri et al. Rob served as Covington's lead counsel in a challenge to Missouri's Photo ID law. Our case contends that Missouri has failed adequately to implement the law in the manner required by the law itself. The case was filed in June 2017; it was tried in August 2019. It was subsequently dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.