Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a67_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 2.0

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MERRILL v. PEOPLE FIRST OF ALABAMA 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

upset the District Court’s record-based, reasoned, and nar-
rowly tailored judgment, which the Court of Appeals for the 
Eleventh Circuit let stand.1 
  The severity of the COVID–19 pandemic should, by now, 
need no elaboration.  As of October 20, 2020, Alabama’s De-
partment  of  Public Health  has  identified  174,528  cases  of 
COVID–19 in the State, leading to 19,801 hospitalizations 
and 2,805 deaths.2  Those figures include about 37,000 new 
cases and 400 more deaths since the District Court issued 
its findings of fact less than a month ago.  See ___ F. Supp. 
3d ___, ___, 2020 WL 5814455, *2 (ND Ala., Sept. 30, 2020).  
COVID–19  presents  particularly  serious  risks  for  those 
with chronic medical conditions.  As Alabama State Health 
Officer Dr. Scott Harris warned, “ ‘[c]hronic disease factors 
are a real risk for dying from this disease, and chronic dis-
eases are found in about a third of our citizens.’ ”  Id., at *4.  
Over  95  percent  of  Alabamians  who  have  died  from 
COVID–19  had  underlying  health  conditions  that  made 
them especially vulnerable to that virus.  Ibid. 
  To combat the spread of COVID–19, the Centers for Dis-
ease  Control  and  Prevention  recommend  that  States  con-
sider  curbside  voting,  that  is,  permit  voters  to  vote  from 
their car  by  handing their  ballot to  a  poll worker.   Id.,  at 
*34.  This is no radical recommendation: The Department 
of  Justice  has  sanctioned  curbside  voting  as  a  remedy  to 
ADA  violations,  see  Dept.  of  Justice,  Project  Civic  Access 
Fact Sheet, https://www.ada.gov/civicfac.htm, and some 28 
States and the District of Columbia already permit curbside 
voting, see App. to Brief for American Diabetes Association 

—————— 

1 The District Court also held that the ban on curbside voting violates 
the plaintiffs’ fundamental right to vote under the First and Fourteenth 
Amendments.  Because I believe the injunction was appropriate under 
the ADA, I do not address the constitutional issues. 

2 Alabama Dept. of Public Health, Characteristics of COVID–19 Cases 
(Oct.  20,  2020),  https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/covid19/assets/cov-al-
cases-102020.pdf.