Whig Party of Alabama v. Siegelman, Civ. A. No. 80-C-1278-S.
| Decision Date | 09 October 1980 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 80-C-1278-S. |
| Citation | 500 F. Supp. 1195 |
| Parties | WHIG PARTY OF ALABAMA, an unincorporated political association, John W. Watts, Individually, and as Chairman of the Whig Party of Alabama, and Claude H. Rhea, III, and Charles L. Danzey, qualified electors of the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama, for themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Don SIEGELMAN, Individually and as Secretary of State of the State of Alabama, O. H. Florence, as Probate Judge of Jefferson County, Alabama, Forrest H. (Fob) James, as Governor of the State of Alabama; and the successors in office of each of said officials of the State of Alabama, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama |
David J. Vann, Jack E. Held, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiffs.
William M. Acker, Jr., Edward S. Allen, Birmingham, Ala., for defendants.
FINAL ORDER
Based on the accompanying Memorandum Of Opinion, it is hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED, DECREED, and DECLARED as follows:
1. § 17-7-1(a)(2) of the Code of Alabama of 1975 as amended, as applied to those political parties ineligible to hold primary elections under Alabama law, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and, accordingly the defendants are enjoined from enforcing the said statutory provision against political parties ineligible to hold primary elections under Alabama law in a way that requires such parties to certify their candidates prior to the last date on which any political party eligible to hold a primary election may certify any of its candidates where no contest is filed.
2. The defendant O. H. Florence, as Judge of Probate of Jefferson County, Alabama, is enjoined from failing to place on the November 1980 general election ballot the name of John H. Buchanan under the Whig Party emblem and column as a candidate for the United States Congress from the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama and said defendant Florence and defendant Don Siegelman are enjoined from failing in any respect to treat the said John H. Buchanan as a candidate for that office in such general election.
3. The plaintiffs Claude H. Rhea, III, Charles L. Danzey, and the class they represent shall have and recover nothing of the defendants.
4. Costs of the action are hereby taxed against the defendants, for which let execution issue.
Under the election laws of Alabama, the Republican and Democratic parties may certify to the Secretary of State their nominees for the general election ballot as late as thirty days prior to the November general election; minor political parties and petitioners for independent candidates are required to certify their nominees by the first Tuesday in September. The Whig Party of Alabama and a certified class of qualified electors raise the pregnant issue of whether this differential treatment of the major and minor parties and independents under Alabama law offends the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The class also challenges § 17-7-1 of the Code of Alabama of 1975, as amended, which: (1) precludes as an independent candidate any person who was a candidate in the primary election of that year; and (2) requires that one percent of the registered voters of a county be included on petitions in support of an independent candidate for an office to be voted on by the electors of a county.
This action was filed on September 29, 1980. The verified complaint was accompanied by a motion for temporary injunctive relief, supported by affidavits. Plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order enjoining the defendant Probate Judge of Jefferson County, Alabama, from printing ballots for the November general election which did not include the name of their candidate for the United States Congress from the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama. The plaintiffs' counsel also filed an affidavit pursuant to FRCP 65(b)(2), attesting to reasonable efforts undertaken by him to give to the defendants notice of the application for emergency relief. After satisfying itself that such efforts had in fact been made, and directing that further contacts be had by plaintiffs' counsel with the defendants and/or their counsel in chambers, the Court set down for hearing the application for a temporary restraining order.
Based on the matters asserted at the hearing, at which the Republican Party appeared and participated, the Court issued a temporary restraining order on the night of the filing of the lawsuit, restraining the Probate Judge of Jefferson County, Alabama, from printing any general election ballots which omitted the name of plaintiffs' candidate pending a hearing on and determination of plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction.
A status conference was held on October 1, 1980, at which counsel for all of the parties appeared and participated.
The preliminary hearing was scheduled and held four days later-October 3, 1980. Pursuant to FRCP 65(a)(2), the Court had previously ordered the trial of the action on the merits to be consolidated with the hearing on the application for a preliminary injunction.
The Court granted permissive intervention to the Republican Party of Alabama under FRCP 24(b)(2); and upon a finding that the Republican Party's participation in the trial of the action would "unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties," it limited the Republican Party's involvement to the submission of briefs and presentation of oral arguments. In effect, though not in words, intervention by the Republican Party was denied in the exercise of the Court's discretion; and the Republican Party was treated as an amicus curiae.
The Democratic Party of Alabama's motion to participate in the case as amicus curiae was granted, but the Party was denied leave to examine witnesses.
All of defendants and the Republican Party duly filed answers to the complaint.
The case was heard and taken under submission on October 3, 1980.
The Whig Party reemerged in 1970 as a political party in Alabama-after a century and a quarter's absence from the political scene in the state.1 John Watts, Chairman of the reactivated Whig Party of Alabama, unsuccessfully ran for Governor in 1974. Another Whig candidate ran for Secretary of State in 1970 and for the Alabama Public Commission in 1974.
Whig Party leaders apparently decided sometime after the date of the first primary election in 1980 that they wished to nominate John H. Buchanan as their candidate for the United States Congress from Alabama's Sixth Congressional District. Mr. Buchanan, an incumbent Republican Congressman who has served in the position for the past sixteen years, had been defeated in his September 2 primary bid for the Republican party's nomination.
Taking the position that Alabama's election laws permit minor political parties to nominate by caucus as late as the date of the second primary,2 i. e., September 23, 1980, the Whig Party gave a published notice on September 18, 1980, in a newspaper of general circulation in Jefferson County, of an adjourned meeting to be held on September 23, 1980, "to nominate candidates to be voted in the November 1980, general election." The meeting was duly held and at that meeting John H. Buchanan was nominated as the Whig Party's candidate for the Sixth Congressional District.
On the same day, John Buchanan accepted in writing the Whig Party's nomination. The nomination was filed with the Secretary of State on the following day.
The Secretary of State has refused to certify the Whig Party's Congressional candidate, relying on § 17-7-1(a) of the Code of Alabama of 1975, as amended, which provides in pertinent part:
(a) The following persons shall be entitled to have their names printed on the appropriate ballot for the general election ... (2) All candidates who have been put in nomination by any caucus, convention, mass meeting or other assembly of any political party or faction and certified in writing by the chairman and secretary of the nominating caucus, convention, mass meeting or assembly and filed with ... the secretary of state ... on or before 5:00 P.M. on the day of the first primary election.
On the other hand, the Whig Party points to § 17-16-43(b) of the Code of Alabama of 1975 as amended, which requires that the nominating meetings of political parties utilizing the caucus or convention method "shall be held on the same date as that set for primary elections or within 90 days preceding such date." It reasons that since primary elections were set for September 2, 1980, (the first primary) and September 23, 1980 (the second or runoff primary), it was entitled under the law to hold its meeting on the date of the second primary. Also, the Whig Party argues that the filing deadline for minor political parties under Alabama law offends the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The evidence did not establish that the Whig Party cast more than twenty percent (20%) of the votes in any county of Alabama in the 1978 general elections; in fact, there was no showing of Whig candidates for any County or State office in 1978.
Rhea and Danzey And The Independent Candidacy of John H. Buchanan
Plaintiffs Claude H. Rhea, III and Charles S. Danzey are registered voters residing in the Sixth Congressional District. Both plaintiffs seek to have the name of John H. Buchanan placed on the ballot as an independent candidate.
Mr. Danzey desired to vote for Mr. Buchanan in the Republican primary on September 2; but he also wished to vote for a Democratic United States Senator and Democratic local candidates. Since there was no opposition in the Democratic primary to the party's only declared candidate for the Sixth Congressional District seat, the name of the Democratic candidate did not appear on the ballot. § 17-16-11(c...
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