Bates v. Jones
| Decision Date | 07 October 1997 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 97-15864,97-15914,s. 97-15864 |
| Citation | 127 F.3d 870 |
| Parties | 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7908, 97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 12,683 Tom BATES; Edward H. Lyman; Ardis Graham; Richard D. Lewis; Lawrence J. Buchalter; Jonathan Browning; Rachel Sherman; Martha A. Escutia; Sylvia Hernandez; Ana Rosa Pena; Claudia Navar; Barbara J. Friedman; Susan Zarakov; Harriet Sculley, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Bill JONES, Secretary of the State of California; Bradley J. Clark; Alameda County Registrar Of Voters; Conny McCormack, Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, Defendants-Appellees, and Peter F. Schabarum; Lewis K. Uhler; Lee A. Phelps; National Tax Limitation Committee; Alliance Of California Taxpayers & Involved Voters; Intervenors-Appellees. Bill JONES, Secretary of the State of California, Defendant-Appellant, and Peter F. Schabarum; Lewis K. Uhler, Intervenors-Appellants, v. Tom BATES; Edward H. Lyman; Richard D. Lewis; Lawrence J. Buchalter; Jonathan Browning; Rachel Sherman, Plaintiffs-Appellees, and National Tax Limitation Committee; Alliance Of California Taxpayers & Involved Voters, Intervenors, v. Bill JONES, Secretary of the State of California, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Einer Elhauge, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Daniel E. Lungren, California Attorney General, Sacramento, California, for defendant-appellant Bill Jones.
Anthony T. Caso, Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, California, for intervenors-appellants Peter F. Schabarum, et al.
Joseph Remcho, Remcho, Johansen & Purcell, San Francisco, California, for plaintiffs-appellees Tom Bates et al.
Stephen J. Safranek, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, Michigan, for amicus curiae U.S. Term Limits.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; Claudia Wilken, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 95-CV-02638-CW.
Before: SNEED, FLETCHER, and REINHARDT, Circuit Judges.
In this case involving the constitutionality of California's initiative (Proposition 140) imposing lifetime legislative term limits, the court has before it two motions for intervention. 1 In the first motion, twenty state legislators and voters request leave to intervene on the side of plaintiffs-appellees Tom Bates, et al. 2 In the second motion, one state legislator Curt Pringle, and U.S. Term Limits, a non-profit organization that promotes legislation regarding term limits and already enjoys amicus status, seek to intervene on the side of defendants-appellants Bill Jones, et al. The state opposes both motions. We grant the first motion and deny the second.
The controlling principle for our decision is the need for uniformity in the November, 1998 election. The state in its briefs to this court, and to the Supreme Court, has repeatedly expressed its legitimate desire to avoid to the greatest extent possible any unnecessary inequities and delay in the upcoming election cycle. We agree. Unlike the state, however, we believe that the most effective way to achieve this objective is to allow as many parties as possible who seek to run for office contrary to the term limits provision of Proposition 140 to be bound by our decision. Such joinder undoubtedly will facilitate any further judicial action that may occur 3 and will render inconsistent application of the law less likely.
The state primarily argues that the applicants for intervention as plaintiffs-appellees are barred from intervening by res judicata. We thus address that argument first. Finding that it is unpersuasive, we then consider the state's argument that these applicants fail to satisfy the formal criteria for permissive intervention.
We apply California law to the state's res judicata claim. 28 U.S.C. § 1738. The large majority of those seeking to intervene as plaintiffs-appellees were not parties to Legislature v. Eu, 54 Cal.3d 492, 286 Cal.Rptr. 283, 816 P.2d 1309 (1991). They are not bound by that decision for the same reasons that plaintiff-appellee Bates is not. Those reasons--in particular, the applicability of the public interest exception--are fully set out in our opinion on the merits. See Bates v. Jones, slip op. at 12968-69. We believe that the strong public interest in uniformity of the law, when combined with the intrinsic importance of the issues presented, justifies our examination of the federal claims of candidates who would be eligible for office under our decision, but not under Eu.
We also hold, in part for the same reasons, that application of the public interest exception to legislators who actually participated in the Eu litigation is justified under the unusual circumstances present here. Another exception recognized by California courts is applicable to these proposed intervenors as well. Under California law, a prior legal determination is not conclusive "if injustice would result," Kopp v. Fair Political Practices Comm'n, 11 Cal.4th 607, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 108, 905 P.2d 1248, 1257 n. 16 (1995), or, put differently, if "a new determination is warranted in order to avoid the inequitable administration of the laws." Rutherford v. State, 188 Cal.App.3d 1267, 233 Cal.Rptr. 781, 789 (1987). It is obvious that voters and candidates alike would suffer a serious injustice and the laws would be administered inequitably if a small number of incumbents were barred from office because they were plaintiffs in Eu, but all other incumbents were permitted to run for re-election. Voters in a small number of election districts would then be deprived of the rights enjoyed by all other voters simply because their legislators had unsuccessfully sought a particular remedy for an unconstitutionally enacted law. The need for uniform election practices is all the more compelling because--whatever one's view of the benefits or evils of incumbents who have served more than a few terms--it seems obvious that some voters should not be allowed to be represented by a class of legislators that voters in other districts are precluded from electing, and vice-versa. Such a result would be inconsistent with the elementary principles of fairness that govern California's elections. See, e.g., Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724, 736, 94 S.Ct. 1274, 1282, 39 L.Ed.2d 714 (1974) (); Legislature v. Deukmejian, 34 Cal.3d 658, 194 Cal.Rptr. 781, 669 P.2d 17 (1983).
Intervention on appeal is governed by Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Landreth Timber Co. v. Landreth, 731 F.2d 1348, 1353 (9th Cir.), rev'd on the merits, 469 U.S. 1016, 105 S.Ct. 427, 83 L.Ed.2d 354 (1984). Intervention at the appellate stage is, of course, unusual and should ordinarily be allowed only for "imperative reasons." Landreth Timber, 731 F.2d at 1353. This case, however, is nothing if not unusual.
The state bases its objection regarding the criteria for intervention solely on an alleged lack of timeliness. 4 The state contends that if we allow these applicants "casual[ly]" to intervene now, we will open the door for future litigants to "sandbag" other parties by waiting to intervene until a favorable ruling seems likely. The state's argument ignores the highly unusual posture and circumstances of this case.
In analyzing timeliness, we focus "on the date the person attempting to intervene should have been aware his 'interest[s] would no longer be protected adequately by the parties,' rather than the date the person learned of the litigation." Officers for Justice v. Civil Service Comm'n, 934 F.2d 1092, 1095 (9th Cir.1991) (quoting Legal Aid Soc'y v. Dunlop, 618 F.2d 48, 50 (9th Cir.1980)). After oral argument in this appeal, the state raised the possibility that California courts would not accept this court's interpretations of federal law except as to the parties named in this action because a ruling by this court that Proposition 140 is unconstitutional would create a continuing conflict between the federal and state courts as to the eligibility of candidates who have participated neither in this litigation nor in Eu--in short, that the 1998 elections would be thrown into a state of disarray. Whether the Secretary of State will, as a general matter, actually refuse to follow this court's ruling is irrelevant. It is enough that he has signaled the possibility that he may do so. Until that assertion, the proposed intervenors believed that they would be able to benefit from a favorable ruling by this court because the California Supreme Court has yet to disregard a directly applicable decision of this court on a question of federal law. 5
Even more important, however, are the rights of the voters. It is not too late to ensure that their interests in fairness and uniformity are protected if all that is required is to permit candidates who will seek re-election to become bound by our decision. The state's electoral process would be subject to disruption if eligibility in each district has to be decided in a separate lawsuit. Surely all parties should want uniformity in the 1998 election. Whatever the ultimate outcome of this case, intervention can only be a step in that direction.
Under these circumstances, and given the fundamental nature of the right at stake, we find it both "imperative" and in the public interest that we allow these applicants to intervene. Like other cases in which intervention has been allowed on appeal, the state does not assert that it will be prejudiced by intervention, and we find no reason to think otherwise. See, e.g., Atkins v. State Bd. of Educ., 418 F.2d 874 (4th Cir.1969) (per curiam) (); Hurd v. Illinois Bell Tel. Co....
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