CASE STUDIES IN EMERGENCY ELECTION LITIGATION

Federal Judicial Center 9/11/2023 1

Ballot-Petition Circulators 

Do Not Have to Be Registered Voters 

Davis v. Johnson (2:14-cv-11818) 

and Moore v. Johnson (2:14-cv-11903) 

(Gershwin A. Drain and Matthew F. Leitman, E.D. Mich.) 

Two cases challenged a requirement that ballot-petition signatures 

be collected by registered voters. One case concerned an election for 

a local school board, and the other case concerned election to Congress. Following recusal by the judge who was assigned the first 

case, the cases were assigned to a new judge who issued a preliminary injunction against the registration requirement for collectors 

of signatures, and the state elected not to appeal. 

Subject: Getting on the ballot. Topics: Getting on the ballot; 

primary election; recusal; case assignment. 

On May 6, 2014, a Highland Park school-board member wishing to run for 

reelection filed a federal complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan challenging a state requirement that candidacy petition signatures be collected by 

registered voters.1 He pleaded a desire to submit his petitions by May 19, 

stating that “personal obligations thereafter . . . will prevent him from seeking signatures after said date.”2

 On the following day, the school-board 

member filed a motion for a temporary restraining order.3

On May 8, Judge Gershwin A. Drain set the case for hearing on May 15.4

On May 13, however, Judge Drain recused himself.5

Two voters filed a second federal complaint in the district on May 12 

challenging the exclusion of candidate petition signatures for John Conyers’s 

congressional reelection because the signatures were gathered by persons not 

registered to vote in Michigan.6 The voters designated their case as related to 

the school-board member’s.7

The court reassigned Judge Drain’s case to Judge Matthew F. Leitman 

and then assigned the related case to Judge Leitman, who held a telephonic 

status conference with the parties on May 13.8 On May 14, Judge Leitman 

1. Complaint, Davis v. Johnson, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 6, 2014), D.E. 1. 

2. Id. at 10. 

3. Temporary-Restraining-Order Motion, id. (May 7, 2014), D.E. 5. 

4. Order, id. (May 8, 2014), D.E. 9; see Activist Asks Wayne County Clerk to Certify Conyers—or Wait for Hearing, Detroit Free Press, May 13, 2014, at A4. 

5. Order, Davis, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 13, 2014), D.E. 16. 

6. Complaint, Moore v. Johnson, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 12, 2014), D.E. 1; 

see Amended Complaint, id. (May 15, 2014), D.E. 12; see also Conyers Seeks to Get Back on 

Ballot, Boston Globe, May 17, 2014, at A2. 

7. Notice, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 12, 2014), D.E. 2. 

8. Docket Sheet, id. (May 12, 2014) [hereinafter Moore Docket Sheet]; Docket Sheet, Davis, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 6, 2014) [hereinafter Davis Docket Sheet]; Reassignment Order, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 13, 2014), D.E. 6 (reassigning 

the second case from Judge Linda V. Parker to Judge Leitman). 
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2 Federal Judicial Center 9/11/2023 

scheduled another status conference for May 19 and a hearing for May 21.9

Judge Leitman also held a telephonic status conference on May 15.10

The Conyers case was more time-sensitive than the first case, and Judge 

Leitman used the status conferences to press the parties on time deadlines for 

printing ballots.11 Judge Leitman was a big believer in telephone status conferences, and they worked well here to help the court and the parties establish a doable schedule.12

On May 15, an aspiring candidate for Conyers’s seat and the aspiring 

candidate’s campaign manager, whose challenge to Conyers’s signatures resulted in Conyers’s disqualification, moved to intervene in defense against 

the voters’ case.13 They also moved to participate in the school-board member’s case as amici curiae.14 Noting “essentially a complete overlap between 

the arguments presented by amici and those presented by Defendants,” 

Judge Leitman granted the amicus curiae motion but denied the intervention 

motion.15 On May 15 and 16, Wayne County’s election commission moved 

to intervene against the two actions.16 Judge Leitman granted these motions.17

The court arranged to use an overflow courtroom for the Wednesday, 

May 21, hearing,18 but the overflow courtroom did not turn out to be necessary.19 Judge Leitman had received his commission on March 14.20 “It was a 

privilege to have this one be [his] first real substantive argument.”21 Judge 

Leitman announced that he would rule on Friday, “out of respect for, for lack 

of a better word, the dignity and comity for the Secretary of State of MichiTim Reagan interviewed Judge Leitman for this report by telephone on April 30, 2015. 

9. Order, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 14, 2014), D.E. 10; Order, Davis, 

No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 14, 2014), D.E. 17; Transcript, id. (May 21, 2014, filed 

May 30, 2014), D.E. 31 [hereinafter May 21, 2014, Transcript]. 

10. Order, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 15, 2014), D.E. 22 [hereinafter 

May 15, 2014, Moore Order]; Moore Docket Sheet, supra note 8. 

11. Interview with Hon. Matthew F. Leitman, Apr. 30, 2015. 

12. Id. 

13. Intervention Motion, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 15, 2014), D.E. 14; 

see Sheffield Challenges Conyers Signatures, Detroit Free Press, Apr. 30, 2014, at A5. 

14. Motion, Davis, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 15, 2014), D.E. 19. 

15. Order, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 23, 2014), D.E. 33, 2014 WL 

2171097; May 15, 2014, Moore Order, supra note 10; Davis Docket Sheet, supra note 8. 

16. Intervention Motion, Davis, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 16, 2014), D.E. 25; 

Intervention Motion, Moore, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 15, 2014), D.E. 23. 

17. Moore Docket Sheet, supra note 8; Davis Docket Sheet, supra note 8. 

On June 10, 2014, the election commission withdrew from the school-board member’s 

case. Notice, Davis, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. June 10, 2014), D.E. 36. 

18. May 21, 2014, Transcript, supra note 9, at 8.

19. Interview with Hon. Matthew F. Leitman, Apr. 30, 2015. 

20. Federal Judicial Center Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, www.fjc. 

gov/history/ judges. 

21. May 21, 2014, Transcript, supra note 9, at 139. 

“The briefing schedule has been intense. You guys have met every schedule. The written 

product is terrific.” Id. at 6. 
Ballot-Petition Circulators Do Not Have to Be Registered Voters 

Federal Judicial Center 9/11/2023 3

gan to take a first look at something before a Federal Court assesses its constitutionality.”22 The secretary promised that she would determine by noon 

on Friday if Conyers’s signatures were insufficient for reasons that would 

obviate the need to rule on the registration requirement.23

On Friday, May 23, Judge Leitman ordered Conyers’s name placed on the 

August 5 primary-election ballot.24

Judge Leitman’s strategy was to rule quickly to allow time for a thoughtful appeal, accommodating the interests of both the parties and the court of 

appeals and allowing for him to issue a more detailed opinion while the parties were working on an appeal.25 In the event, there was no appeal.26

Judge Leitman ordered additional arguments in the other case.27 After a 

June 3 evidentiary hearing at which the school-board-member plaintiff was 

examined as a witness,28 Judge Leitman denied relief on June 17, because the 

board member could secure a place on the November ballot by paying a $100 

fee.29

On July 1, Judge Leitman issued a consent judgment in Conyers’s case 

proscribing a requirement that ballot-petition circulators be registered voters.30 Judge Leitman granted a stipulated dismissal in the other case on July 

21.31

Conyers was reelected on November 4.32 On December 18, the schoolboard candidate was sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzling nearly 

$200,000 from the schools.33 Three years later, Conyers resigned from Con22. Id. at 139 

23. Id. at 116–17; see id. at 43–52, 74–76 (argument by the secretary’s attorney that a review of signatures remained in process). 

24. Order, Moore v. Johnson, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. May 23, 2014), D.E. 35; see

Julie Bosman, Judge Allows Conyers to Be on the Ballot in Michigan, N.Y. Times, May 24, 

2014, at A13; Federal Judge’s Ruling Puts Conyers on Primary Ballot, Detroit Free Press, May 

24, 2014, at A1; Judge Orders Conyers Put on Ballot, Boston Globe, May 24, 2014, at A2; Sean 

Sullivan, Judge Orders Rep. Conyers Back on Ballot, Wash. Post, May 24, 2014, at A2. 

25. Interview with Hon. Matthew F. Leitman, Apr. 30, 2015. 

26. Id. 

27. Order, Davis v. Johnson, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. May 23, 2014), D.E. 30, 2014 

WL 2158424. 

28. Transcript, id. (June 3, 2014, filed June 14, 2014), D.E. 37. 

29. Opinion, id. (June 17, 2014), D.E. 38, 2014 WL 2744128. 

30. Consent Judgment, Moore v. Johnson, No. 2:14-cv-11903 (E.D. Mich. July 1, 2014), 

D.E. 41. 

On September 15, 2014, Judge Leitman awarded the plaintiffs $114,999.50 in attorney 

fees. Stipulated Order, id. (Sept. 15, 2014), D.E. 44. 

31. Stipulated Dismissal, Davis, No. 2:14-cv-11818 (E.D. Mich. July 21, 2014), D.E. 53. 

32. See David Shepardson, Jim Lynch & Lauren Abdel-Razzaq, Mich. Dems Hope to Buck 

Republican Tide in U.S. House, Detroit News, Nov. 5, 2014, at A1. 

33. Judgment, United States v. Davis, No. 2:12-cr-20224 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 29, 2014), D.E. 

75; see Robert Snell, Activist Robert Davis Sentenced to 18 Months, Detroit News, Dec. 19, 

2014, at A4. 
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4 Federal Judicial Center 9/11/2023 

gress during a widespread cultural narrowing of tolerance for histories of 

sexual harassment.34

34. See Yamiche Alcindor, Facing Harassment Claims, Conyers Says He’ll Step Down, 

N.Y. Times, Dec. 6, 2017, at A21; Melissa Nann Burke & Jonathan Oosting, Conyers Resigns 

Amid Scandal, Detroit News, Dec. 6, 2017, at A6; Elise Viebeck & David Weigel, Besieged 

Conyers Ends His Long Tenure, Wash. Post, Dec. 6, 2017, at A1. 

Conyers died in 2019. See Adam Clymer, John Conyers Jr., 90, Longest-Serving AfricanAmerican in Congress, Dies, N.Y. Times, Oct. 28, 2019, at B7; Katy Stech Ferek, Lawmaker 

Served More Than 50 Years, Wall St. J., Oct. 28, 2019, at A4; John Otis, Longtime Congressman Co-Founded Black Caucus, Wash. Post, Oct. 28, 2019, at A1.