Citizens Against Rent Control Coalition For Fair Housing v. City of Berkeley, California

• Decision Date: 14 December 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-737,80-737
• Citation: 102 S.Ct. 434,454 U.S. 290,70 L.Ed.2d 492
• Parties: CITIZENS AGAINST RENT CONTROL/COALITION FOR FAIR HOUSING, et al., Appellants v. CITY OF BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

454 U.S. 290

102 S.Ct. 434

70 L.Ed.2d 492

CITIZENS AGAINST RENT CONTROL/COALITION FOR FAIR HOUSING, et al., Appellants

v CITY OF BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, et al.

No. 80-737.

Argued Oct. 14, 1981.

Decided Dec. 14, 1981.

Syllabus

A Berkeley, Cal., ordinance places a limitation of $250 on contributions to committees formed to support or oppose ballot measures submitted to a popular vote. When appellant association, which was formed to oppose a ballot measure imposing rent control in the city, accepted some contributions exceeding the $250 limit, appellee Berkeley Fair Campaign Practices Commission ordered the association to pay the excess into the city treasury. The association then brought suit in California Superior Court seeking injunctive relief against enforcement of the ordinance, and that court subsequently granted summary judgment for the association, holding that the ordinance was invalid on its face as a violation of the First Amendment. The California Court of Appeal affirmed, but the California Supreme Court reversed, holding that the ordinance furthered compelling governmental interests in ensuring that special interest groups could not "corrupt" the initiative process by spending large amounts to support or oppose a ballot measure, which interests outweighed the First Amendment interests infringed upon.

Held : The restraint imposed by the ordinance on the right of association and in turn on individual and collective rights of expression plainly contravenes both the right of association and the speech guarantees of the First Amendment. Pp. 294-300.

(a) To place a limit on individuals wishing to band together to advance their views on a ballot measure, while placing no limit on individuals acting alone, is clearly a restraint on the right of association. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659, held that contributions to candidates or their committees could be restricted in order to prevent corruption or its appearance. Here, there is no risk of corruption because this case relates to contributions to committees favoring or opposing ballot measures. Also, there is no risk that the voters will be in doubt as to the identity of those whose money supports or opposes a given ballot measure, since the contributors must make their identities known under the disclosure provisions of the ordinance. Under the exacting judicial review appropriate for in- fringements of First Amendment rights, the $250 limit is unconstitutional. Pp. 295-299.

(b) The contribution limit automatically affects expenditures, and limits on expenditures operate as a direct restraint on freedom of expression of groups and individuals wishing to express themselves through groups. There is no significant state or public interest in curtailing debate and discussion of a ballot measure, and the integrity of the political system will be adequately protected if contributors are identified in a public filing revealing the amounts contributed. Pp. 299-300.

27 Cal.3d 819, 167 Cal.Rptr. 84, 614 P.2d 742, reversed and remanded.

James R. Parrinello, San Francisco, Cal., for appellants.

Natalie E. West, City Atty., Berkeley, Cal., for appellees.

Chief Justice BURGER delivered the opinion of the Court.

The issue on appeal is whether a limitation of $250 on contributions to committees formed to support or oppose ballot measures violates the First Amendment.

I

The voters of Berkeley, Cal., adopted the Election Reform Act of 1974, Ord. No. 4700-N.S., by initiative. The campaign ordinance so enacted placed limits on expenditures and contributions in campaigns involving both candidates and ballot measures.¹ Section 602 of the ordinance provides:

"No person shall make, and no campaign treasurer shall solicit or accept, any contribution which will cause the total amount contributed by such person with respect to a single election in support of or in opposition to a measure to exceed two hundred and fifty dollars ($250)." ²

Appellant Citizens Against Rent Control is an unincorporated association formed to oppose a ballot measure at issue in the April 19, 1977, election. The ballot measure would have imposed rent control on many of Berkeley's rental units. To make its views on the ballot measure known, Citizens Against Rent Control raised more than $108,000 from ap- proximately 1,300 contributors. It accepted nine contributions over the $250 limit. Those nine contributions totaled $20,850, or $18,600 more than if none of the contributions exceeded $250. Pursuant to § 604 of the ordinance,³ appellee Berkeley Fair Campaign Practices Commission, 20 days before the election, ordered appellant Citizens Against Rent Control to pay $18,600 into the city treasury.

Two weeks before the election, Citizens Against Rent Control sought and obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting enforcement of §§ 602 and 604. The ballot measure relating to rent control was defeated. The Superior Court subsequently granted Citizens Against Rent Control's motion for summary judgment, declaring that § 602 was invalid on its face because it violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Art. I, § 2, of the California Constitution. A panel of the California Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed that conclusion.

The California Supreme Court, dividing 4-3, reversed. 27 Cal.3d 819, 614 P.2d 742, 167 Cal.Rptr. 84 (1980). Citing Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976), the majority announced that it would strictly scrutinize § 602. It concluded that the section furthered compelling governmental interests because it ensured that special interest groups could not "corrupt" the initiative process by spending large amounts to support or oppose a ballot measure. Such corruption, the court found, could produce apathetic voters; these governmental interests were held to outweigh the First Amendment interests infringed upon. Finally, it concluded that § 602 accomplished its goal by the least restrictive means available. The California Supreme Court did not consider the disclosure requirements of the ordinance a sufficient prophylaxis to dispel perceptions of corruption.⁴

We noted probable jurisdiction, 450 U.S. 908, 101 S.Ct. 1344, 67 L.Ed.2d 331 (1981), and we reverse.

II

The appellees concede that the challenged ordinance has an impact on First Amendment rights; the parties disagree only as to the extent of the impact. Long ago this Court admonished that with respect to the First Amendment:

"[T]he power to regulate must be so exercised as not, in attaining a permissible end, unduly to infringe the protected freedom." Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 304, 60 S.Ct. 900, 903, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940).

This was but another way of saying that regulation of First Amendment rights is always subject to exacting judicial review.

We begin by recalling that the practice of persons sharing common views banding together to achieve a common end is deeply embedded in the American political process. The 18th-century Committees of Correspondence and the pamphleteers were early examples of this phenomena and the Federalist Papers were perhaps the most significant and lasting example. The tradition of volunteer committees for collective action has manifested itself in myriad community and public activities; in the political process it can focus on a candidate or on a ballot measure. Its value is that by collective effort individuals can make their views known, when, individually, their voices would be faint or lost. The Court has long viewed the First Amendment t as protecting a marketplace for the clash of different views and conflicting ideas. That concept has been stated and restated almost since the Constitution was drafted. The voters of the city of Berkeley adopted the challenged ordinance which places restrictions on that marketplace. It is irrelevant that the voters rather than a legislative body enacted § 602, because the voters may no more violate the Constitution by enacting a ballot measure than a legislative body may do so by enacting legislation.

III

A.

The Court has acknowledged the importance of freedom of association in guaranteeing the right of people to make their voices heard on public issues:

"Effective advocacy of both public and private points of view, particularly controversial ones, is undeniably enhanced by group association, as this Court has more than once recognized by remarking upon the close nexus between the freedoms of speech and assembly." NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 460, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 1170, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958).

More recently the Court stated: "The First Amendment protects political association as well as political expression." Buckley v. Valeo, supra, at 15, 96 S.Ct., at 632.

Buckley also made clear that contributors cannot be protected from the possibility that others will make larger contributions:

"[T]he concept that government may restrict the speech of some elements of our society in order to enhance the relative voice of others is wholly foreign to the First Amendment, which was designed 'to secure "the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources," ' and ' "to assure unfettered inter- change of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people." ' New York Times Co. v. Sullivan [376 U.S. 254], at 266, 269 [84 S.Ct. 710, at 718, 11 L.Ed.2d 686], quoting Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1, 20 [65 S.Ct. 1416, 1424, 89 L.Ed. 2013] (1945), and Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. [476], at 484 [77 S.Ct. 1304, at 1308, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498]. The First Amendment's protection against governmental abridgment of free expression cannot properly be made to depend on a person's financial ability to engage in public discussion. Cf. Eastern R. Conf. v. Noerr Motors, 365 U.S. 127, 139 [81 S.Ct. 523, 530, 5 L.Ed.2d 464] (1961)." 424 U.S., at 48-49, 96 S.Ct., at 648-649.

The Court went on to note that the freedom of...