South Carolina Green Party v. South Carolina State Election Comm'n, 09-1915.

• Decision Date: 20 July 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-1915.,09-1915.
• Citation: 612 F.3d 752
• Parties: SOUTH CAROLINA GREEN PARTY; Eugene Platt; Robert Dunham, Plaintiffs-Appellants,v.SOUTH CAROLINA STATE ELECTION COMMISSION; John H. Hudgens, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Cynthia M. Bensch, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Tracey C. Green, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Pamella B. Pinson, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Thomas Waring, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Charleston County Democratic Party, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

612 F.3d 752

SOUTH CAROLINA GREEN PARTY; Eugene Platt; Robert Dunham, Plaintiffs-Appellants,v.SOUTH CAROLINA STATE ELECTION COMMISSION; John H. Hudgens, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Cynthia M. Bensch, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Tracey C. Green, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Pamella B. Pinson, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Thomas Waring, in their official capacities as members of the South Carolina State Election Commission; Charleston County Democratic Party, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 09-1915.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued: May 11, 2010.

Decided: July 20, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: Bryan Sells, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellants. Andrew Lindemann, Davidson, Morrison & Lindemann, PA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Laughlin McDonald, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellants. Matthew T. Richardson, Wyche, Burgess, Freeman & Parham, P.A., Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee Charleston County Democratic Party.

Before KEENAN, Circuit Judge, HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and SAMUEL G. WILSON, United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge KEENAN wrote the opinion, in which Senior Judge HAMILTON and Judge WILSON joined.

OPINION

KEENAN, Circuit Judge:

Eugene Platt and the South Carolina Green Party challenge the constitutionality of South Carolina's “sore-loser” statute, S.C.Code § 7-11-10, as applied to Platt's Green Party candidacy for South Carolina House Seat 115.¹ The district court upheld the constitutionality of the statute as applied to Platt's candidacy and, for the following reasons, we affirm.

I.

In 2008, Platt sought to become a fusion candidate ² in the election for South Carolina House Seat 115, seeking the nomination of three political parties, the South Carolina Democratic Party (Democratic Party), the South Carolina Green Party (Green Party), and the South Carolina Working Families Party (Working Families Party). On March 17, 2008, Platt filed a statement of intention of candidacy with the Democratic Party. Ten days later, he filed a similar statement with the Working Families Party.

On May 3, 2008, Platt filed an additional statement of candidacy with the Green Party. That same day, the Green Party chose Platt as its nominee during a state convention. On May 10, 2008, the Working Families Party chose Platt as its nominee.

On June 10, 2008, Platt lost the Democratic Party primary election. After Platt's loss in the primary, the South Carolina State Election Commission (the Election Commission) notified Platt that based on South Carolina's sore-loser statute, S.C.Code § 7-11-10, his name could not appear on the ballot for the general election as the nominee for the Green Party or for the Working Families Party. The statute provides, in relevant part:

[N]o person who was defeated as a candidate for nomination to an office in a party primary or party convention shall have his name placed on the ballot for the ensuing general or special election....

S.C.Code § 7-11-10.

Platt, along with the Green Party and Robert Dunham, a registered South Carolina voter who supported Platt, (collectively, the plaintiffs) filed an action against the Election Commission and various other defendants (collectively, the Election Commission), asserting that application of the sore-loser statute violated the Green Party's rights of association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. After the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Election Commission and denied the plaintiffs' motion, holding that the sore-loser statute is constitutional as applied to Platt's Green Party candidacy.

On appeal, the plaintiffs argue that the sore-loser statute is unconstitutional when applied to the Green Party's nominee, Platt, because he successfully secured the nomination of the Green Party before losing his attempt to become the Democratic Party nominee. According to the plaintiffs, application of the sore-loser statute to bar Platt's name from the general election ballot as the Green Party's candidate imposed a severe burden on the Green Party's association rights. The plaintiffs contend that application of the statute effectively permitted the Democratic Party primary voters to “veto” the Green Party's preferred candidate and prevented the Green Party from nominating a substitute candidate. Notably, the plaintiffs do not argue that Platt's individual rights of association have been affected by the Election Commission's application of the sore-loser statute.

The plaintiffs ask that we apply a strict scrutiny review to their claim in light of the allegedly severe burden imposed on the Green Party's association rights. The plaintiffs contend that when a strict scrutiny standard is used, the sore-loser statute is unconstitutional as applied because the statute is not narrowly tailored to advance South Carolina's interest in minimizing excessive factionalism. As a result, the plaintiffs maintain, this Court should hold that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to Platt's candidacy with the Green Party.

In response, the Election Commission argues that the Green Party's association rights were not severely burdened and, therefore, strict scrutiny should not apply to our review of the sore-loser statute. The Election Commission contends that Democratic primary voters did not effectively “veto” the Green Party's selection of Platt as its nominee because Platt's decision to run in the Democratic primary, rather than any interference by Democratic voters, placed him at risk of disqualification as the Green Party nominee. According to the Election Commission, South Carolina's sore-loser statute serves to promote several important state regulatory interests. Thus, the Election Commission asks that we hold that the sore-loser statute is constitutional as applied to Platt's Green Party candidacy.

II.

Our standard of review is well established. We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. News & Observer Publ'g Co. v. Raleigh-Durham Airport Auth., 597 F.3d 570, 576 (4th Cir.2010).

A.

The First Amendment, as incorporated against the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the rights of individuals to associate for the advancement of political beliefs and ideas. Kusper v. Pontikes, 414 U.S. 51, 56-57, 94 S.Ct. 303, 38 L.Ed.2d 260 (1973). These rights include the freedom for individuals to “band together” in political parties to promote electoral candidates who support their political views. Cal. Democratic Party v. Jones, 530 U.S. 567, 574, 120 S.Ct. 2402, 147 L.Ed.2d 502 (2000). Such political parties have a right to choose their “standard bearer” in the form of a nominee. Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Cent. Comm., 489 U.S. 214, 224, 109 S.Ct. 1013, 103 L.Ed.2d 271 (1989).

When analyzing whether a state election law impermissibly infringes on association rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, courts must “weigh the ‘character and magnitude’ of the burden the State's rule imposes on those rights against the interests the State contends justify that burden, and consider the extent to which the State's concerns make the burden necessary.” Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party, 520 U.S. 351, 358, 117 S.Ct. 1364, 137 L.Ed.2d 589 (1997) (quoting Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780, 789, 103 S.Ct. 1564, 75 L.Ed.2d 547 (1983)). Regulations that impose a severe burden on association rights are subject to strict scrutiny, and a court applying this level of review may uphold the regulation only if it is “narrowly tailored and advance[s] a compelling state interest.” Id. However, if a statute imposes only modest burdens, then “a State's ‘important regulatory interests' will usually be enough to justify ‘reasonable, nondiscriminatory restrictions.’ ” Id. (quoting Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428, 434, 112 S.Ct. 2059, 119 L.Ed.2d 245 (1992)).

Decisions in previous cases have recognized the various state interests furthered by sore-loser statutes. In Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724, 735, 94 S.Ct. 1274, 39 L.Ed.2d 714 (1974), the Supreme Court addressed a California sore-loser provision, and emphasized the importance of sore-loser statutes in discouraging intra-party feuding and in reserving “major struggles” for general election ballots. See also Backus v. Spears, 677 F.2d 397, 399-400 (4th Cir.1982). The Supreme Court later explained, in Clingman v. Beaver, 544 U.S. 581, 596, 125 S.Ct. 2029, 161 L.Ed.2d 920 (2005), that sore-loser statutes prevent a candidate who has lost a party primary or nomination from effecting a “splinter” of a major political party, by joining a minor party while retaining the support of the major party's voters, thereby undermining the major party in the general election.

We have recognized that South Carolina's sore-loser statute is “substantially identical” to California's sore-loser provision discussed in Storer. Backus, 677 F.2d at 400. We further have stated that South Carolina's sore-loser statute is a “justifiable measure[ ] for preventing splintering and factionalism within the major parties.” Cromer v. South Carolina, 917 F.2d 819, 825 (4th Cir.1990). In the context of these statements, we consider the constitutionality of South Carolina's sore-loser statute as applied to the Green Party's association rights.

B.

We first address whether the South Carolina sore-loser statute placed a severe burden on the Green Party's right to choose its own candidate. The plaintiffs argue that the burden imposed by the statute is severe, because Platt's loss in the Democratic primary...