PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 19-2265 PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL FOUNDATION, INC., Plaintiff - Appellant, v. NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS; KAREN BRINSON BELL, in her official capacity as Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Defendants – Appellees. ------------------------------ ASSOCIATION OF MEXICANS IN NORTH CAROLINA; EL PUEBLO, INC.; NORTH CAROLINA ASIAN AMERICANS Amici Supporting Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. Terrence W. Boyle, District Judge. (5:19−cv−00248−BO) Argued: December 10, 2020 Decided: May 10, 2021 Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, AGEE, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges. Vacated and remanded with instructions by published opinion. Judge Keenan wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Gregory and Judge Agee joined. ARGUED: William Earl Davis, FOLEY & LARDNER LLP, Jacksonville, Florida, for Appellant. Ryan Y. Park, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Noel H. Johnson, Kaylan L. Phillips, PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL FOUNDATION, Indianapolis, Indiana, for Appellant. Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, Caryn Devins Strickland, Solicitor General Fellow, Paul M. Cox, Special Deputy Attorney General, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees. Allison Riggs, Jeffrey Loperfido, SOUTHERN COALITION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, Durham, North Carolina; Donald Salzman, Geoffrey Wyatt, Kathleen Shelton, Desislava Kireva, Washington, D.C., for Amici Association of Mexicans in North Carolina, Inc., El Pueblo, Inc., and North Carolina Asian Americans. 2 BARBARA MILANO KEENAN, Circuit Judge: In this appeal, we consider whether the district court erred by dismissing under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) the plaintiff’s claim against the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections (the Board, or the state Board) alleging a violation of the disclosure provision in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the NVRA), 52 U.S.C. § 20507(i)(1). The plaintiff, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, Inc. (the Foundation), sought disclosure of broad categories of documents related to the identification of North Carolina voter registrants whom the Board had identified as potentially failing to satisfy the statutory citizenship requirement. See N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 163-54, 55(a) (together explaining that United States citizenship is a requirement for registration and voting in North Carolina). The district court dismissed the complaint, concluding that the Foundation failed to state a claim under the NVRA based on the sensitive nature of the information sought and the potential for abuse. Upon our review, we hold that the district court erred in dismissing the complaint at this stage of the proceedings. Because discovery was not conducted, we cannot discern on this record whether the Foundation may be entitled to disclosure of some of the documents requested. We therefore remand the case to the district court for further consideration of the documents subject to four restrictions excluding from disclosure: (1) information precluded from disclosure by the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b) (the Privacy Act), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C. § 2721(c) (the Driver Protection Act); (2) information obtained …
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