CAROL WILDING, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
vs. FINAL ORDER OF DISMISSAL
DNC SERVICES CORP., d/b/a/
Democratic National Committee
and DEBORAH WASSERMAN SCHULTZ,
Defendants.
/
THIS MATTER is before the Court upon Defendants’ Motion To
Dismiss Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint (DE 44). The Court has
carefully reviewed said Motion, the entire court file, and, with
the benefit of oral argument, is otherwise fully advised in the
premises.
In the 2016 presidential election’s Democratic primaries,
Bernie Sanders and others vied against Hillary Clinton for the
Party’s nomination. This case, in short, involves allegations that
the Democratic National Committee1 was in cahoots with the Clinton
campaign and sought to tip the scales in her favor in the
Democratic primaries, all at the direction of, and under the
leadership and watchful eye of, its then-chair, Deborah Wasserman
Schultz, despite the DNC’s and Wasserman Schultz’s promise to
remain impartial. Plaintiffs discovered what they believe is
evidence of that bias after the DNC’s computer servers were
penetrated by hackers. Shortly thereafter, they brought this
putative class action against the DNC and its former chair.
In evaluating Plaintiffs’ claims at this stage, the Court
assumes their allegations are true——that the DNC and Wasserman
Schultz held a palpable bias in favor Clinton and sought to propel
her ahead of her Democratic opponents. Plaintiffs assert several
fraud-type claims. But they do not allege they ever heard or acted
upon the DNC’s claims of neutrality. Plaintiffs also assert a tort
claim on behalf of all registered Democrats, even though the harm
they allege impacted all Democratic-primary-eligible voters——and
under their theory, the entire body politic——the same way. And
finally, Plaintiffs claim that donors to the DNC are at an
increased risk of identity theft as a result of the computer hack.
But they do not allege that the DNC regularly keeps the type of
information necessary to facilitate identity theft or that the
hackers targeted, much less obtained, that information. The Court
must now decide whether Plaintiffs have suffered a concrete injury
particularized to them, or one certainly impending, that is
traceable to the DNC and its former chair’s conduct——the keys to
entering federal court. The Court holds that they have not, which
means the truth of their claims cannot be tested in this Court.
