New York Court of Appeals Affirmed the Constitutionality of New York’s Early Mail Voter Act of 2023

On August 20, 2024, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the constitutionality of New York’s Early Mail Voter Act, a 2023 law which makes absentee voting available to all registered voters in New York. This is a victory for Hecker Fink and the amici they represented in the case. 
 

Earlier this year, Hecker Fink filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group of legal scholars in support of the State of New York’s defense of the Act. The brief’s analysis sought to bolster the constitutionality of the Act with an argument raised by neither party to the case: namely, that the New York Constitution evinces a structural commitment to democracy—which Amici call the “democracy principle”—that requires interpreting the Constitution with a presumption in favor of democracy-expanding legislation. Properly applied here, the democracy principle required finding the Act fully consistent with the text, history, and structure of the Constitution. 
 

The Court’s decision vindicates these principles by affirming the constitutionality of the Act. Hecker Fink’s filing, which can be read in full here, reflects the firm’s commitment to upholding the rule of law and protecting fundamental tenets of our democracy.
 

The Hecker Fink team includes Joshua Matz, Joseph Posimato, and Anna Collins Peterson.
 

Amici are: Richard Briffault, the Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation at Columbia Law School; Jessica Bulman-Pozen, the Betts Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and a Director of the Law School’s Center for Constitutional Governance; Wilfred U. Codrington III, the Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law at Cardozo Law School and Co-Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy; Nestor Davidson, the Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use and Property Law at Fordham Law School and Faculty Director of the Law School’s Urban Law Center; James A. Gardner, the Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law; and Michael Pollack, a Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School and Co-Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy.