New York City: We, as independent ordinary citizens, filed a lawsuit against the top four congressional leaders with the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York to abolish the slavery-era Electoral College, and to compel the Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty to enact laws ensuring Equal Protection of voting rights for all Americans guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. On July 10th a district court judge granted the Defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In his 2-page ruling, the judge did not dispute the facts presented by the plaintiff: (1) under the Electoral College, the plaintiff’s vote is worth less than a vote in a less-populous state, and (2) the vote of 98% of Americans in the 43 populous states is worth less than 60% of a vote in Wyoming. However the judge deemed “This is precisely the sort of abstract, widely shared ‘injury’ that courts routinely dismiss on standing grounds, as every voter suffers the same alleged harm.” Hence, he ruled that we the plaintiff, have not shown injury-in-fact, thus lack standing to sue. We, respectfully but strongly, disagree with this ruling, and as of today have completed the required steps to file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. First of all, we disagree with the reasoning behind the decision which essentially says, if a harm is shared by / imposed upon a large population, then any individual member of such large population lacks concrete and particularized injury, hence has no standing. In 1787, when the Constitution was first enacted, only a small population of white male property owners had the right to vote, the majority of Americans were denied the right to vote, and the black slaves were counted as 60% in allocating electoral votes. If the aforementioned reasoning holds, then a white man with no property would have no standing to sue and demand the right to vote before the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. If this reasoning holds, then a person of color would have no standing to sue and demand the right to vote before the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. If this reasoning holds, then a woman would have no standing to sue and demand the right to vote before the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1919. If this reasoning holds, then a 20-year old person would have no standing to sue and demand the right to vote before the 26th Amendment was ratified in 1971. The Declaration of Independence proclaims the funding principle of our country, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The 14th Amendment decrees Equal Protection of these unalienable rights for all Americans, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The District Court ruling essentially implies that large population of Americans shall remain silent and obedient, and their “Unalienable Rights” are subject to the mercy of the politicians in Congress. We believe the ruling is not only contradictory to the founding principle of our country and the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment, but also ignorant of the 1st Amendment which provides the right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” More importantly, the ruling is inconsistent with the following cases decided by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s rulings in two landmark cases of Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964) have clearly established: (i) the basic democratic principle of “one person one vote”, (ii) individual voters have the standing to challenge when the weight or value of their votes are diluted or disadvantaged relative to other voters, and (3) individual voters are entitled to relief under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In Bush v. Gore (2000), the Supreme Court again explained in its ruling that equal weight must be accorded to each vote, and equal dignity of each voter must be respected under the Equal Protection clause: “When the state legislature vests the right to vote for President in its people, the right to vote as the legislature has prescribed is fundamental; and one source of its fundamental nature lies in the equal weight accorded to each vote and the equal dignity owed to each voter… It must be remembered that the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen’s vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise.” Although all these three aforementioned cases concerned the voting right issue within a state, we firmly believe the same constitutional principle and legal reasoning should apply to the voting right issue raised by this plaintiff with respect to national presidential elections. Dear Fellow Americans, if the value of each vote is significantly unequal from one state to the next, the right to vote is meaningless. If the right to vote is meaningless, the presidential elections are nothing but a sham. Justice John Marshall Harlam once said “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.” We as a country have come a long way to make our constitution property-blind, color-blind, gender-blind, and age-blind. It is long overdue to demand our constitution to be “state-blind”. Dear Fellow Americans, we knew from the very beginning that our mission would be a long hard journey. By appealing to the Court of Appeals, we are now entering the second stage of our lawsuit. No matter how enormous the challenge is ahead of us, we remain determined to fight for our mission: Abolish the Electoral College Achieve Equal Vote for all Americans regardless of state residency! At this moment, your continued support is even more important, please help spread the words and tell your elected representatives that it is time to end the grave injustice in which 98% of Americans is counted in a manner even worse than a slave 230 years ago. • Visit us at www.equalvoteamerica.org • Like us on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EqualVoteAmerica • Follow us at Twitter: EqualVoteAmerica@EqualVoteUSA • Contact us via Email: contact@equalvoteamerica.org • Watch our YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVCfhHuAnrB7ghaJv8BFNTA14RB6WkFNM • All feedback and suggestions are most welcome and appreciated.