CASE STUDIES IN EMERGENCY ELECTION LITIGATION

Federal Judicial Center 9/3/2023 1

Enjoining False Robocalls About Voting by Mail 

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl 

(Victor Marrero, S.D.N.Y. 1:20-cv-8668) 

A district judge required private parties who had made robocalls 

threatening voters with false statements about voting by mail to 

make curative robocalls. 

Subject: Campaign activities. Topics: Campaign materials; early 

voting; absentee ballots; corporate electioneering; intervention; 

matters for state courts; pro se party; interlocutory appeal; Covid19. 

An October 16, 2020, federal complaint filed in the Southern District of New 

York accused defendants of intimidating voters during the global Covid-19 

infectious pandemic with robocalls warning voters not to vote by mail: “Voters deceived by these messages face a harmful choice: expose yourself and 

your family to increased risk of contracting COVID-19 by voting in person, 

or do not vote.”1

 The plaintiffs were an organization and eight voters in New 

York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.2 The defendants were two persons, two of 

their businesses, and ten Does.3

 The plaintiffs filed a proposed temporary 

restraining order on October 22.4

Judge Victor Marrero ordered a written response to the request for a 

temporary restraining order by October 23 and set the case for a telephonic 

hearing on Monday, October 26, posting contact information in the public 

record.5 The individual defendants, who were also facing criminal prosecution, appeared at the hearing pro se.6

 An attorney filed a brief on their behalf 

on the following day.7

1. Complaint at 1, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, No. 1:20-cv-8668 

(S.D.N.Y. Oct. 19, 2020), D.E. 11 (correcting a Friday, October 16, 2020, filing error); Nat’l 

Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, ___ F. Supp. 3d ___, ___, 2023 WL 2403012 

(S.D.N.Y. 2023) (pp.1, 14 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 256); see Nat’l 

Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, 512 F. Supp. 3d 500, 504–05 (S.D.N.Y. 2021); 

Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, 498 F. Supp. 3d 457, 463 (S.D.N.Y. 2020). 

2. Complaint, supra note 1, at 3–4. 

3. Id. at 4–5. 

4. Proposed Order, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. 

Oct. 22, 2020), D.E. 12; Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, ___ F. Supp. 3d at ___, 2023 

WL 2403012 (p.14 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 256); see Nat’l Coal. 

on Black Civic Participation, 512 F. Supp. 3d at 507. 

5. Order, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 22, 

2020), D.E. 27; see Docket Sheet, id. (Oct. 16, 2020) (minutes, Oct. 26, 2020); Nat’l Coal. on 

Black Civic Participation, ___ F. Supp. 3d at ___, 2023 WL 2403012 (p.14 of opinion filed at 

S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 256); Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 498 F. Supp. 

3d at 465–66. 

6. Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 498 F. Supp. 3d at 466, 468, 474–75; Opinion 

at 3–4, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 2021), 

D.E. 77, 2021 WL 694557 (denying a renewed defense motion to stay the case pending criminal proceedings in state court), appeal dismissed for lack of a final order, Order, No. 21-495 
Enjoining False Robocalls About Voting by Mail 

2 Federal Judicial Center 9/3/2023 

Judge Marrero granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order on 

Wednesday.8

 Referring to the defendants’ actions as electoral terror, “this 

Court finds that the information Defendants’ calls convey is manifestly false 

and meant to intimidate citizens from exercising voting rights.”9

 The robocalls asserted that voting by mail would subject voters to enhanced private 

and government surveillance.10 Judge Marrero ordered the defendants to 

make curative robocalls to all recipients of the false robocalls informing them 

of the court’s findings.11

Judge Marrero ordered evidence of compliance submitted by 5:00 p.m. 

on October 29.12 Instead, the defendants’ attorney submitted a letter outlining difficulties in complying with the court’s order arising from pending 

criminal prosecutions.13 Following negotiations among the parties and two 

teleconference hearings on October 30, Judge Marrero determined that information submitted by the defendants remained insufficient to assess compliance with his order.14 An interlocutory appeal from the temporary restraining order was withdrawn.15

In January 2021, Judge Marrero denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss 

the case.16 In February, Judge Marrero denied defendants a stay pending resolution of their criminal prosecutions in Michigan and Ohio.17 In May, Judge 

(2d Cir. June 22, 2021), D.E. 92, 2021 WL 3852252; see also Oralandar Brand-Williams, 2 

Conservative Activists to Be Tried in Robocall Plot, Detroit News, Oct. 30, 2020, at A5; Beth 

LeBlanc, Two Appear in Voter Intimidation Case, Detroit News, Oct. 9, 2020, at A4; Darrel 

Rowland, Ohio Considering Charges in Voter Intimidation, Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 18, 

2020, at A15. 

One defendant said at the hearing, “We rushed as fast as we could to get a lawyer, and we 

have secured him as of yesterday, and he will be available on the case literally within 24 

hours or so.” Transcript at 3, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 

(S.D.N.Y. Oct. 26, 2020, filed Nov. 2, 2020), D.E. 53. 

7. Defendants’ Brief, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. 

Oct. 27, 2020), D.E. 36; Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 498 F. Supp. 3d at 469. 

8. Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 498 F. Supp. 3d 457; Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic 

Participation, ___ F. Supp. 3d at ___, 2023 WL 2403012 (p.14 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. 

No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 256); Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 512 F. Supp. 3d at 507; 

see Opinion, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 29, 

2020), D.E. 41, 2020 WL 6365336 (denying reconsideration). 

9. Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 498 F. Supp. 3d at 464. 

10. Id. at 466. 

11. Id. at 490 (scripting the message). 

12. Id.

13. Letter, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 29, 

2020), D.E. 43. 

14. Opinion, id. (Oct. 30, 2020), D.E. 49; see Letters, id. (Oct. 3, 2020), D.E. 46 to 48; Nat’l 

Coal. on Black Civic Participation Docket Sheet, supra note 5 (minutes, Oct. 30, 2020); see 

also Oralandar Brand-Williams, Judge Criticizes Activists’ Remedy for Robocalls, Detroit 

News, Oct. 31, 2020, at A6. 

15. Order, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, No. 20-3724 (2d Cir. Nov. 9, 

2020), D.E. 11. 

16. Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, 512 F. Supp. 3d 500 (S.D.N.Y. 2021). 

17. Opinion, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 
Enjoining False Robocalls About Voting by Mail 

Federal Judicial Center 9/3/2023 3

Marrero permitted New York’s attorney general to intervene as a plaintiff, 

adding a California robocall business as a defendant.18 Judge Marrero denied 

intervention to someone who “has not identified any claim or defense he 

wishes to assert that shares a common question of law or fact with the main 

action”; the prospective intervenor sought to challenge the attorney general’s 

“selective enforcement of voting rights laws and alleged misconduct in connection with the 2017 New York City government elections.”19 On September 17, Judge Marrero denied a motion to dismiss the attorney general’s 

complaint in intervention.20

The original and intervening plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on 

November 12, 2021.21 On June 2, 2022, Judge Marrero issued a consent decree governing the California business’s robocalls.22 The individual defendants pleaded guilty in the Ohio prosecution in October.23 Judge Marrero 

granted the plaintiffs summary judgment on March 8, 2023.24 He concluded, 

“Defendants set into motion a full-scale voter suppression operation during 

the summer of 2020 to discourage eligible voters from voting by targeting 

mail-in voting in the 2020 Election.”25 A jury trial on remedies is set to begin 

on January 29, 2024.26

2021), D.E. 77, 2021 WL 694557; see Order, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, 

No. 21-232 (2d Cir. June 22, 2021), D.E. 113, 2021 WL 3852252 (dismissing an interlocutory 

appeal). 

18. Opinion, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. May 19, 

2021), D.E. 101; see Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation v. Wohl, ___ F. Supp. 3d ___, 

___, 2023 WL 2403012 (S.D.N.Y. 2023) (pp.1–2, 16 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv8668, D.E. 256); Intervention Complaint, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-

cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. May 19, 2021), D.E. 102; N.Y. Att’y Gen. Letter, id. (May 6, 2021), D.E. 

92; see also Opinion, id. (Sept. 17, 2021), D.E. 140, 2021 WL 4254802 (denying a motion to 

dismiss new defendants). 

19. Opinion at 2–3, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. 

May 28, 2021), D.E. 115, 2021 WL 2183090. 

20. Opinion, id. (Sept. 17, 2021), D.E. 140, 2021 WL 4254802; Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic 

Participation, ___ F. Supp. 3d at ___, 2023 WL 2403012 (p.16 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. 

No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 256). 

21. Amended Complaint, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 

(S.D.N.Y. Nov. 12, 2021), D.E. 149. 

22. Consent Decree, id. (June 2, 2022), D.E. 196; Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, 

___ F. Supp. 3d at ___, 2023 WL 2403012 (p.16 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv8668, D.E. 256). 

23. Letter, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 9, 

2023), D.E. 252 (attaching a plea transcript); Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, ___ F. 

Supp. 3d at ___, 2023 WL 2403012 (p.15 of opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 

256); see Christine Hauser, 2 Plead Guilty Over Robocalls Meant to Curb Voting by Mail, 

N.Y. Times, Oct. 26, 2022, at A11. 

24. Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, ___ F. Supp. 3d ___, 2023 WL 2403012 

(opinion filed at S.D.N.Y. No. 1:20-cv-8668, D.E. 256). 

25. Id. at ___ (p.5 of filed opinion). 

26. Order, Nat’l Coal. on Black Civic Participation, No. 1:20-cv-8668 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 31, 

2023), D.E. 318.