Memorandum Opinion and Order

This suit challenges the constitutionality of West Virginia’s Ballot Order Statute, which mandates that ballots for partisan offices list first the party whose presidential candidate received the most votes in the last election. Following the parties’ bench trial, the Court must now weigh the extent to which the Statute burdens the plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights against the state’s asserted interests. Finding the state’s interests insufficient to justify the burdens created by the Statute, the Court now declares the Ballot Order Statute unconstitutional, enjoins the defendants from enforcing it, and orders the defendants to implement a constitutional ballot ordering system for future elections, including the November 2020 general election.

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Pending before the court is a Motion to Compel Certain Opt-in Plaintiffs to Arbitration and Stay Proceedings, [ECF No. 44], and a Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction, [ECF No. 34], filed by Defendant TransCanada USA Services, Inc. (“TransCanada”). Also pending before the court is a Motion for Conditional Class Certification and Court-Authorized Notice, [ECF No. 26], filed by Plaintiffs. For the reasons that follow, Defendant’s Motion to Compel Arbitration, [ECF No. 44] is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, [ECF No. 34], is DENIED, and Plaintiff’s Motion for Conditional Class Certification, [ECF No. 26], is GRANTED.

Memorandum Decision and Order

A deadly pandemic provides extraordinary and compelling reasons for the world to take unprecedented measures to combat the spread of the lethal COVID-19 virus. This petitioner is locked down at the Federal Correctional Institution at Elkton. At that prison, the COVID-19 pandemic has struck with a vengeance, killing nine people and infecting almost 500 prisoners by some estimates and many staff. Approximately 25% of the inmates have tested positive for the virus. The question before this court is whether a federal prisoner who has been identified by the Bureau of Prisons as medically vulnerable to this deadly virus and who has petitioned this court for compassionate release has extraordinary and compelling reasons to justify his request pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). For the reasons that follow, Defendant Ralph White’s Motion for Immediate Compassionate Release, [ECF No. 405], is GRANTED.

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Presently pending before the Court is Plaintiffs’ “Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction Regarding Defendants’ Prevention, Management, and Treatment of COVID-19.” Mot. for Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 161. Defendants timely filed a Response in Opposition, Resp. in Opp’n, ECF No. 168, and Plaintiffs did the same with their Reply, Reply, ECF No. 173. The parties also provided supplemental information to the Court, which has all been filed under seal. See Exs., ECF -2-  No. 181. The Court held a hearing on Plaintiffs’ Motion on April 6, 2020 and determined that the issues had been adequately presented through the parties’ submissions and oral argument, and therefore dispensed with the need for further witness testimony. Video Mot. Hr’g, ECF No. 180. For the reasons set forth below—as well as for those announced on the record at the hearing—the Court DENIES Plaintiffs’ Motion.