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A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit from a coalition of advocacy groups against the Rensselaer County Board of Elections over a proposal to share voter registration data with federal immigration authorities, saying both parties shouldn't have acted so quickly.

U.S. District Judge David Hurd of the Northern District of New York wrote Tuesday that both the advocacy groups, and county officials, should have taken a breath over the whole ordeal.

Hurd threw out the lawsuit because, as he said, the advocacy groups hadn't convinced him they would be harmed by the county's proposed policy, which was never codified and didn't take effect after it was announced. 

"Perhaps, had they waited for any actual policy to take effect, and had they brought forward a proposed plaintiff who had a less tenuous grasp at standing than those it mustered, this Court might have examined its claims and taken a careful look at the proposed policy," Hurd wrote.

The lawsuit was brought against the Rensselaer County board of elections in July after the county announced, in a press release on its Facebook page, that it would start sharing voter registration data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to root out any applicants who may be in the country illegally.

The proposal was born from a state law passed in June that's set to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses in New York. Opponents, like Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, have claimed the law will also provide a path for those immigrants to vote.

That's because, they've argued, anyone who has a nine-digit driver's license in New York can also register to vote. Supporters of the law have said elections officials will be able to weed out anyone who unlawfully attempts to register, as they currently do.

That law, called the Green Light Act, is set to take effect in December. Merola has a separate lawsuit against the state seeking to strike down the measure. That suit is ongoing.

About a week after Rensselaer County posted on its Facebook page that it would share voter registration data obtained from driver's license applicants with the federal government, the advocacy groups filed their challenge to the proposal.

The lawsuit was led by the New York Immigration Coalition, Common Cause of New York, Citizen Action of New York, and Community Voices Heard. They were represented by attorneys with the Protect Democracy Project, an attorney-built nonprofit group.

Anu Joshi, senior director of immigrant rights policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, said the groups were reviewing the decision with their attorneys before deciding what to do next.

"We are currently consulting with our lawyers to determine our next steps and stand ready to fight tooth and nail to protect the rights of immigrants in Rennselaer County and across New York," Joshi said.

Each of those groups have an interest in registering voters and feared the proposed policy would discourage individuals legally eligible to vote from registering to do so. They argued that they would have to divert resources to boost voter registration efforts because of the plan.

Hurd, in his decision, wrote he was unconvinced that the groups would face a financial burden because of the policy, and wrote that their "argument practically defines the word speculative." Without a concrete injury, Hurd wrote, the lawsuit couldn't stand.

"Plaintiffs' argument practically defines the word speculative, and the complaint's attempts to render the hypothetical real only illustrate their lack of standing," Hurd wrote.

"That anticipatory action is made all the more speculative because it depends on the hypothetical adoption of the press release's proposed policy and the even more hypothetical outcome of ICE making a mistake in enforcing immigration law," he later wrote.

Hurd also said there was no imminent threat to the groups, particularly because the proposed policy from Rensselaer County never took effect. It was announced by the county in a press release posted on social media, but never adopted by the county's board of elections.

Because of that, Hurd wrote, it was the choice of those groups to dedicate any additional spending in response to the county's post on social media—not a mandate.

"Whatever resources plaintiffs have diverted, they have therefore done so at their own choosing and for their own purpose, and they cannot argue that they were forced to expend these resources by a toothless proposal of policy," Hurd wrote.

Along with the advocacy groups, a former resident of Rensselaer County had also signed onto the lawsuit as a plaintiff. That individual, Jenifer Benn, said she would be harmed by the policy because ICE could mistake a naturalized citizen in her family as undocumented.

Hurd rejected her claims as well, saying they were entirely hinged on a hypothetical situation and an assumption that the federal government may harm a member of her family.

"Given the remoteness of her fears, and the number of possible, but improbable, intervening events that must occur before those fears can be realized, this plaintiff has failed to demonstrate a concrete, particularized and—especially—imminent, injury," Hurd wrote.

Hurd did not evaluate whether the proposed policy was lawful or not. He didn't have to get that far since he struck down the challenge based on a lack of potential harm to Benn and the advocacy groups. 

But he had a message for both the groups that brought the lawsuit and officials from Rensselaer County: stop and take a breath next time.

"The defining feature of this case is haste. Nearly before the ink could dry on the Green Light Act's signature, Rensselaer had issued a press release that it could neither support nor enforce," Hurd wrote. "What good it hoped to accomplish through that empty gesture is unclear to this Court even today."

Hurd said the advocacy groups might have had a stronger case if they'd waited for the county to institute the announced policy, or if they had stronger evidence that harm would result. But that didn't happen, he wrote.

"Instead, plaintiffs leapt at the sound of Rensselaer's rattling sabers and charged ill-prepared into this Court," Hurd wrote. "Their zeal is commendable, but it cannot confer upon this Court the authority to hear this case."

Rensselaer County officials were not immediately available to comment on the decision Tuesday afternoon.

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