Anna Mackin
Senior Counsel
Anna Mackin is a political lawyer and litigator who advises political candidates, PACs, nonprofit and for-profit corporations, officeholders, and individuals on all facets of political participation. Anna specializes in compliance with state and federal campaign finance, ethics, and election laws; representing clients in enforcement, advisory, and rulemaking proceedings before the Federal Election Commission and state campaign finance regulators; and zealously advancing her clients’ interests in state and federal litigation.
Anna’s practice draws on over a decade in public service, where she was a senior advisor to federal and state officials and litigated game-changing cases involving the First Amendment, elections, campaign finance, and redistricting. Most recently, Anna was counsel to a Chairman and a Vice Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. Anna also was the chief legal advisor to the Texas Senate during the 2021 legislative redistricting cycle, where she successfully managed the redistricting of Texas’s 38 congressional districts and its 31 State Senate districts.
Anna previously served as Assistant Attorney General and Special Litigation Counsel at the Texas Attorney General’s Office, where she represented the State of Texas, its officers, and its agencies in politically charged civil litigation. In these cases, Anna took countless depositions, briefed and argued dozens of dispositive motions, presented and cross-examined witnesses at trials and hearings, and briefed and argued appeals to Texas appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Anna also served as a liaison from the Attorney General’s Office to the Texas Legislature and successfully assisted elected lawmakers in crafting legislation to further legislative policy goals without creating unintended consequences for the agency’s hundreds of attorneys and staff.
Anna is fluent in Spanish and lives in Austin with her husband and their daughters.
Education
Notre Dame Law School, J.D.
University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish
Bar Admissions
Texas
U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Experience
Counsel to the Chairman & Vice-Chairman, Federal Election Commission
Lead Redistricting Counsel, Texas Senate Redistricting Committee
Special Litigation Counsel, Team Lead, & Assistant Attorney General, Texas Attorney General’s Office
Staff Attorney, Institute for Free Speech
Legal Associate, Cato Institute
Clerkships
United States Senate Judiciary Committee
Texas Court of Appeals for the Third Judicial District
Representative Litigation Matters
Lead district court counsel in successful defense of Texas’s signature verification requirement for mail-in ballots. Richardson v. Texas Sec'y of State, 978 F.3d 220, 224 (5th Cir. 2020).
Counsel in multiple cases successfully defending Texas election laws in the context of COVID-19. Texas Democratic Party v. Abbott, 978 F.3d 168 (5th Cir. 2020) (district court counsel); Hughs v. Move Texas Action Fund, No. 03-20-00497-CV (Tex. App.—Austin Oct. 23, 2020) (lead district court and appellate counsel); State v. Texas Democratic Party, No. 14-20-00358-CV (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] July 16, 2020) (lead district court counsel).
Successfully defended Texas ballot-access requirements against request for preliminary injunction. Miller v. Doe, 422 F. Supp. 3d 1176, 1179 (W.D. Tex. 2019).
Trial counsel in challenge to 2013 Texas redistricting maps. Perez v. Abbott, 267 F. Supp. 3d 750 (W.D. Tex. 2017), aff’d in part, rev’d in part, Abbott v. Perez, 138 S. Ct. 2305 (2018).
Successfully argued for denial of preliminary injunction and obtained dismissal of challenge to UT Austin’s campus-carry policy. Glass v. Paxton, No. 1:16-CV-845 (W.D. Tex. July 6, 2017), aff’d, 900 F.3d 233 (5th Cir. 2018) (lead district court counsel).
Obtained multiple summary judgments dismissing discrimination claims against state defendants. Cooper v. Univ. of Texas Health Sci. Ctr. at Tyler, No. 6:16-CV-1270 (E.D. Tex. Mar. 1, 2018); Ctr. for Juv. Mgmt., Inc. v. Williams, No. 5:15-CV-640-RP (W.D. Tex. Sept. 22, 2016).
Drafted successful motion to certify questions regarding the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act to the en banc United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Holmes v. Federal Election Commission, 823 F.3d 69 (D.C. Cir. 2016).
Successfully obtained permanent injunction against state law prohibiting electioneering on election day. Emineth v. Jaeger, 901 F. Supp. 2d 1138 (S.D.N.D. 2012).
Contact
Office: Austin, TX
Email: anna@lexpolitica.com