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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE DIVISION

KIRK NIELSEN et al., 

Plaintiffs, 

v. 

RON DESANTIS et al., 

Defendants. 

_____________________________/ 

CONSOLIDATED

CASE NO. 4:20cv236-RH-MJF

DREAM DEFENDERS PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A 

THIRD AMENDED COMPLAINT

Pursuant to Rule 15(a)(2), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and N.D. Fla. 

Local Rule 15.1, Plaintiffs Celcio Eduardo Romero, Sheila Young, Zebra Coalition, 

Murray Heller, Acacia Williams, Bianca Maria Baez, Paulina Hernandez Morales, 

Dream Defenders, Organize Florida, and New Florida Majority Education Fund

(collectively, the “Dream Defender Plaintiffs”) respectfully request that the Court 

enter an order granting the Dream Defender Plaintiffs leave to file the Third 

Amended Complaint attached hereto as Exhibit 1, which has been narrowly revised,

for the sole purpose of adding the most recently appointed members of the Florida 

Election Canvassing Commission (“ECC”), who will comprise at least a majority of 

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the ECC for the 2020 Primary Election and 2020 General Election. As grounds for 

this relief, the Dream Defender Plaintiffs state:

1. On March 16, 2020, the Dream Defender Plaintiffs filed their initial 

Complaint (Case No. 1:20-cv-00067-RH-GRJ, ECF No. 1) against Defendants, 

including Governor DeSantis, Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee, and the 

Florida Elections Canvassing Commission (“ECC”) (collectively, the “State-Level 

Plaintiffs”).

2. The Complaint was served on, among others, Governor DeSantis’s authorized 

agent (see Ex 2, hereto), and the ECC’s authorized agent (see Ex 3, hereto). In this 

way, the ECC received notice of this case near its inception.

3. Pursuant to the parties’ agreement in their Rule 26(f) report (ECF No. 25), 

and this Court’s scheduling order (ECF No. 26) Plaintiffs filed their First Amended 

Complaint on April 20, 2020 (Case No. 1:20-cv-00067-RH-GRJ, ECF No. 35).

4. Following that amendment, the United States Court of Appeals for the 

Eleventh Circuit issued its decision in Jacobson v. Lee, No. 19-14552 (11th Cir., Apr. 

29, 2020). The Jacobson court held both that plaintiffs lacked standing to obtain the 

relief requested in that case against the Florida Secretary of State and elaborated on 

the existing law concerning the facts an organizational plaintiff must prove to 

establish standing in its own right. Accordingly, Dream Defender Plaintiffs filed a 

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Second Amended Complaint on May 8, 2020. (ECF No. 46-47). The Second 

Amended Complaint named the 67 individual Florida County Supervisors of 

Elections and the 67 County Canvassing Commissions as defendants.

5. On June 10, 2020, the Court raised sua sponte the issue of whether the claims 

against the ECC are barred by the Eleventh Amendment. (ECF No. 222).

6. As is described in greater detail in Dream Defender Plaintiffs’ Second 

Amended Complaint and their Combined Opposition to the Motions to Dismiss 

Filed by the Secretary of State and the Election Canvassing Commission (ECF 246), 

the ECC is necessary to this case in order to ensure that any extension to the vote 

by mail or cure period deadlines is compatible with deadlines for filing election 

results with the ECC, which deadlines the ECC may modify under certain 

emergency situations. See F.S. 112.112(4). Thus, to assure complete relief is 

available for all of Dream Defender Plaintiffs’ claims, Dream Defender Plaintiffs 

hereby seek leave of the Court to file a Third Amended Complaint to add the 

individual ECC members, who served during the 2020 Presidential Preference 

Primary, and are expected to serve on the ECC, or to comprise at least a majority of 

the ECC, for the 2020 Primary and 2020 General Elections. (The specific ECC 

Commissioners for the August 2020 Primary and the 2020 General Elections have 

not yet been designated by the Governor.)

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7. Dream Defender Plaintiffs, in their Combined Opposition to the Motions to 

Dismiss Filed by the Secretary of State and the Election Canvassing Commission 

(ECF 246) addressed the Eleventh Amendment issue raised by the Court, and gave 

notice to the Court that Dream Defender Plaintiffs would seek leave to amend their 

complaint to add the individual ECC members as defendants, if needed to address 

Eleventh Amendment issues. (ECF 246, page 40, n7).

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8. The Dream Defender Plaintiffs do not intend by this motion or by the filing 

of the Third Amended Complaint to moot the motions to dismiss currently asserted 

against the Second Amended Complaint. Rather, the Dream Defender Plaintiffs 

submit that it is appropriate to resolve those motions as if asserted against the Third

Amended Complaint, which shares the same substantive content as the Second

Amended Complaint.

Incorporated Memorandum Of Law

The only change proposed in this Third Amended Complaint is deleting 

Acacia Williams as a plaintiff, as already Ordered by this Court (ECF 73), and 

adding as defendants the individual members of the ECC. Granting this motion will 

1 The Nielsen Plaintiffs similarly sought leave to file an amended complaint to add the individual 

members of the ECC as defendants, which was granted on June 24, 2020. See ECF 284, 288, 292, 

and 329.

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not prejudice the ECC members, since the ECC has already had notice of this case 

as a named defendant, and leave to amend complaints to add individual commission 

members to address Eleventh Amendment concerns is freely granted in the Eleventh 

Circuit. See Brown v. Georgia Dept. of Revenue, 881 F. 2d 1018, 1023 (11th Cir. 

1989). Rather than repeat the arguments in full herein, the Dream Defender 

Plaintiffs hereby adopt the reasoning provided by the Nielsen Plaintiffs set forth in 

their motion for leave to file their Second Amended Complaint. See ECF No. 284, 

288, and 292. For the reasons provided more fully therein, Dream Defendant 

Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court issue an order granting Plaintiffs’ 

motion and leave to file the Third Amended Complaint, attached hereto as Exhibit 

1. 

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Respectfully submitted,

Dated: June 25, 2020

JUDITH A. BROWNE DIANIS**

GILDA DANIELS*

SHARION SCOTT*

JESS UNGER**

JENNIFER LAI-PETERSON**

Advancement Project National Office

1220 L Street N.W., Suite 850

Washington, D.C. 20005

(202) 728-9557

jbrowne@advancementproject.org 

gdaniels@advancementproject.org

junger@advancementproject.org

sscott@advancementproject.org

jlaipeterson@advancementproject.org

CHIRAAG BAINS*

Dēmos

740 6th Street NW, 2nd Floor

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 864-2746

cbains@demos.org

STUART NAIFEH*

KATHRYN C. SADASIVAN*

MIRANDA GALINDO*

EMERSON GORDON-MARVIN*

Dēmos

80 Broad St, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10004

(212) 485-6055

snaifeh@demos.org 

ksadasivan@demos.org

mgalindo@demos.org 

egordonmarvin@demos.org

s/ Stuart C. Naifeh

JEREMY KARPATKIN

JOCELYN WIESNER*

FLORENCE BRYAN**

WILLIAM OMOROGIEVA*

JUNGHYUM BAEK*

Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

601 Massachusetts Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20001-3743

(202) 942-5000

John.Freedman@arnoldporter.com

Jeremy.Karpatkin@arnoldporter.com

Jocelyn.Wiesner@arnoldporter.com

Florence.Bryan@arnoldporter.com

William.Omorogieva@arnoldporter.com

Junghyun.Baek@arnoldporter.com

JEFFREY A. MILLER*

Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

3000 El Camino Road

Five Palo Alto Square, Suite 500

Palo Alto, CA 94306-3807

(650) 319-4500

Jeffrey.Miller@arnoldporter.com

THOMAS BIRD** 

JAVIER ORTEGA*

Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

250 West 55th Street

New York, NY 10019-9710

(212) 836-8000

Thomas.Bird@arnoldpoter.com

Javier.Ortega@arnoldporter.com

ANDREW D. BERGMAN**

Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

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KIRA ROMERO-CRAFT

(FL SBN 49927)

LatinoJustice PRLDEF

523 West Colonial Drive

Orlando, Florida 32804

(321) 418-6354

kromero@latinojustice.org

FRANCISCA FAJANA*

JACKSON CHIN**

LatinoJustice PRLDEF

475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1901

New York, NY 10115

(212) 739-7572

ffajana@latinojustice.org

jchin@latinojustice.org

700 Louisiana Street

Suite 4000

Houston, TX 77002

(713) 576-2400

Andrew.Bergman@arnoldporter.com

JOHN ULIN**

TroyGould PC

1801 Century Park East

Suite 1600

Los Angeles, CA 90067

(310) 553-4441

julin@troygould.com

Attorneys for Plaintiffs

*Admitted pro hac vice

**Application for admission pro hac vice forthcoming

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

The undersigned counsel hereby certifies that a true and correct copy of the 

foregoing was filed with the Court’s CM/ECF system, which provides notice to all 

parties, on this 19th day of June, 2020.

s/ Stuart C. Naifeh

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE WITH LOCAL RULE 7.1

Pursuant to Northern District of Florida Local Rule 7.1(B), the undersigned 

counsel has communicated in good faith with counsel for all Defendants who have 

appeared in the case as of June 25, 2020, and has been informed that:

• Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody opposes the motion;

• The Supervisors of Elections for Alachua, Brevard, Escambia, Flagler, 

Gilchrist, Gulf, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Jefferson, 

Madison, and Okaloosa Counties have no objection to this motion;

• The Canvassing Boards of Alachua, Escambia, Hernando, 

Hillsborough, and Pasco Counties have no objection to this motion;

and

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• The Supervisors of Elections for Broward, Collier, Indian River, 

Lake, Lee, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, and Seminole Counties take no 

position on this motion.

Despite their diligent efforts, Plaintiffs have been unable to ascertain the 

position of the remaining Defendants in this action more than twenty-four hours 

after attempting to meet and confer with their counsel.

Pursuant to Northern District of Florida Local Rule 7.1(F), I further certify 

that, according to the word count of the word processing system used to prepare 

this document, the foregoing Motion and Incorporated Memorandum contain 900

words.

s/ Stuart C. Naifeh

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