The Obama administration’s acting Solicitor General will help Middlesex County Democrats in their fight to preserve organization lines in New Jersey.
Democrats have retained Neal Katyal, a Georgetown law professor and frequent critic of Donald Trump, to represent them in an appeal of a preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi last week that shifted New Jersey from lines to office block ballots, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
The hiring of a high-powered constitutional law expert signals a readiness to mount a serious challenge to protect the line as Quraishi shifts toward hearing the original lawsuit filed in 2020.
Last week’s decision by Quraishi was in response to a lawsuit filed by Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) abolishing the line for the primary this year, based on his belief that Kim and his co-plaintiffs had a likelihood of prevailing at trial.
Katyal is expected to submit a brief on behalf of Middlesex Democrats to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Saturday.
A three-judge circuit court panel denied a bid to stay Quraishi’s decision, but expedited an appeal this week. Oral arguments will take place in Philadelphia on April 12.
A former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and Yale Law Journal editor, Katyal represented former Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore after the 2020 presidential election. He’s argued 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and was the special prosecutor for the State of Minnesota in the murder of George Floyd.
Camden County Democrats and their longtime counsel, Bill Tambussi, remain in the appeal even as county clerks from across the state, who opposed Kim’s lawsuit, have now dropped out.
Quraishi issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the use of the county organizational line, the New Jersey ballot design system that groups party-endorsed candidates together, in the 2024 Democratic primary. It was initially unclear whether the ruling would apply to both parties, but Quraishi later specified that since no Republicans were part of the lawsuit, relief would only apply to Democrats.