Krislov et al v. Rednour et al

• Citation: 226 F.3d 851
• Decision Date: 05 September 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-3801,99-3801
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) Clinton A. Krislov, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, and Joan A. Sullivan, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Wanda L. Rednour, Chairman of the State Board of Elections, Hannelore Hulsman, Vice Chairman of the State Board of Elections, Ronald D. Michaelson, Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, et al., Defendants-Appellants
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Page 851

226 F.3d 851 (7th Cir. 2000)

Clinton A. Krislov, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, and Joan A. Sullivan, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Wanda L. Rednour, Chairman of the State Board of Elections, Hannelore Hulsman, Vice Chairman of the State Board of Elections, Ronald D. Michaelson, Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 99-3801

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued April 20, 2000

Decided September 5, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 96 C 674--Elaine E. Bucklo, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Manion, Rovner, and Williams, Circuit Judges.

Manion, Circuit Judge.

Clinton Krislov and Joan Sullivan were candidates in the March 1996 Illinois Democratic Party primary elections for the United States Senate and the seventh congressional district for the United States House of Representatives, respectively. They initially obtained the required number of signatures to be placed on the ballot. Supporters of other candidates, however, objected to some of the signatures because they were gathered by circulators who were not registered voters in Illinois or the seventh district, as required by Illinois law. After expending substantial time, effort and money, Krislov and Sullivan managed to salvage enough signatures to remain on the ballot, although Krislov voluntarily decided to exit the Senate race before the primary. Krislov and Sullivan sued the Illinois Board of Elections, claiming that requiring signature gatherers to be registered voters of the relevant political subdivision violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. After the Supreme Court issued its decision in Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, Incorporated, 525 U.S. 182 (1999), which declared a similar ballot-access law unconstitutional, the district court granted summary judgment for the candidates. The Board appeals, arguing that the plaintiffs do not have standing, that Buckley does not control this case, and that the law in question is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. We affirm.

I.

Clinton Krislov is an Illinois attorney who sought the nomination of the Democratic Party for one of the United States Senate seats in the March 1996, Illinois primary election. Joan Sullivan is a retired systems analyst who was one of ten candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the United States House of Representatives seat for the seventh congressional district in the same 1996 primary election. Wanda Rednour and the rest of the defendants-appellants are members of the Illinois State Board of Elections, which supervises the administration of Illinois election laws. 10 ILCS 5/1A-1. Krislov and Sullivan ("the candidates") brought this suit against the Board members in their official capacities to enjoin enforcement of the Illinois nomination petitions statute. 10 ILCS 5/7-10. In particular, they complain about two restrictions on their use of nominating petition circulators: (1) that the circulator must be a registered voter; and (2) that the circulator must be registered to vote in the same political subdivision for which the candidate is seeking office, which for Krislov would be the entire State of Illinois, while for Sullivan it is the seventh congressional district. 10 ILCS 5/7-10.¹

Under the statute, the candidate must obtain the required number of signatures: at least 5,000 but not more than 10,000 for the Senate race, and for the congressional race, .5% of the qualified primary electors of the candidate's party in the congressional district. 10 ILCS 5/7-10(a), (b). Both Krislov and Sullivan acknowledge that they were able to do this with their own resources. But they point out that they did not always get to use the circulators of their choice. That is, they had supporters who were not registered to vote in Illinois, but who were willing to gather signatures for them and speak on their behalf while soliciting signatures. They couldn't utilize these people, however, because any signatures gathered by non-resident, non- registered solicitors would have been invalidated under 5/7-10.

Candidates who are successful in garnering the required number of signatures must then file them with the State, which both candidates did. At this point, the party organization can scrutinize the signatures and possibly challenge them. According to the plaintiffs, the established political parties have extensive resources for carrying out these challenges, while the unendorsed candidates frequently cannot marshal the same efforts, thus ending their candidacies. When signatures are challenged, a candidate can opt to employ limited campaign resources to defend the validity of the signatures (rather than spend the time and money on the campaigns), or he can ignore the challenge and face the real possibility of not appearing on the ballot. According to the plaintiffs, this is exactly the scenario they faced in the present case.²

In Krislov's case, many of the 10,000 signatures he filed were challenged by allies of his Party- supported primary opponent (and eventual winner). Sullivan's signatures faced similar challenges. Among the complaints lodged against the signatures was the charge that circulators of some petitions were not registered voters in the relevant political districts. The candidates were forced to devote significant amounts of time, money, personnel, and energy responding to the challenges during the two months preceding the primary election. This prevented the candidates from devoting these resources to getting their message out to the public.

In response to these challenges, as the March primary approached, Krislov initiated this suit as a class action under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, alleging a violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Specifically, he alleged that because section 7-10 prevented him from using large numbers of non-registered residents to circulate his petitions, the law violated his right to freely associate with those potential circulators for the purpose of political expression. He claimed the law also violated his right to ballot access. Krislov bowed out of the race in February 1996, but continued to maintain this suit and sought class certification, in part because he expects to run for election in the future. Sullivan joined the suit in April 1996. The district court subsequently certified a class which includes all candidates whose nominations to a primary election ballot have been or will be challenged on the basis of 5/7-10. Krislov v. Rednour, 946 F. Supp. 563, 569 (N.D. Ill. 1996). Both the candidates and the Board moved for summary judgment, which the district court initially granted for the Board. Krislov v. Rednour, 980 F. Supp. 267 (N.D. Ill. 1997). Later, it vacated that decision and granted summary judgment for the candidates in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, Incorporated, 525 U.S. 182 (1999) (invalidating Colorado's requirement that petition circulators for ballot initiatives be registered voters of the State). Krislov v. Rednour, No. 96-C-674, 1999 WL 1794035 (N.D. Ill. July 7, 1999). The district court enjoined the Board from enforcing the offending portions of 5/7-10 and entered a final judgment pursuant to Federal Rule 54(b). The Board appeals.

II.

A. Standing and Mootness

The Board first challenges the summary judgment on standing and mootness grounds. In particular, it alleges that, because the candidates acquired enough signatures to appear on the respective ballots, they suffered no injury.

Article III of the Constitution provides that the judicial power of the courts extends only to cases or controversies. Therefore, parties seeking to invoke the jurisdiction of federal courts must show that they have standing to sue within the meaning of Article III. Standing has essentially three components. A plaintiff must show that he has suffered an "injury in fact," that the challenged action caused the injury, and that the injury can likely be redressed by the cause of action. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61 (1992); State of Wis. v. F.E.R.C., 192 F.3d 642, 646 (7th Cir. 1999).

Here, while the candidates were able to obtain enough signatures to appear on the ballot, they were injured in several different ways. By being denied use of non-registered, non-resident solicitors, they were required to allocate additional campaign resources to gather signatures and were deprived of the solicitors (political advocates) of their choice. This in itself can be an injury to First Amendment rights. Meyer v. Grant, 486 U.S. 414, 424 (1988). Second, because they were prohibited from using non-registered and non-resident circulators, they were limited in the choice and number of people to carry their message to the public. See Citizens Against Rent Control/Coalition for Fair Housing v. Berkeley, 454 U.S. 290, 294 (1981) ("by collective effort individuals can make their views known, when, individually, their voices would be faint or lost"). This injured the plaintiffs by limiting the size of the audience the candidates could reach and reducing the quantum of speech about the candidates' political views that otherwise could be generated. Meyer, 486 U.S. at 421-22. Also, as we discuss in more detail below, the candidates claim to have been deprived of their right to expressively associate with non-registered or non-resident citizens who were willing to circulate petitions on their behalf. See California Democratic Party v. Jones, 120 S. Ct. 2402, 2408 (2000); Tashjian v. Republican Party of Conn., 479 U.S. 208, 215 (1986) (the First Amendment protects the right of party members to associate and organize with nonmembers to...