Johnson v. Bredesen

• Decision Date: 17 December 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-6377.,08-6377.
• Parties: Terrence JOHNSON, Jim Harris, Joshua Roberts, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Phil BREDESEN, Governor of the State of Tennessee; Brook Thompson, Coordinator of Elections; Riley Darnell, Secretary of State of Tennessee; Richard Holden, Administrator of Elections for Shelby County; Kim Buckley, Administrator of Elections for Madison County; Ray Barrett, Administrator of Elections for Davidson County, in their official capacities, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

624 F.3d 742

Terrence JOHNSON, Jim Harris, Joshua Roberts, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.Phil BREDESEN, Governor of the State of Tennessee; Brook Thompson, Coordinator of Elections; Riley Darnell, Secretary of State of Tennessee; Richard Holden, Administrator of Elections for Shelby County; Kim Buckley, Administrator of Elections for Madison County; Ray Barrett, Administrator of Elections for Davidson County, in their official capacities, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 08-6377.

United States Court of Appeals,Sixth Circuit.

Oct. 28, 2010.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Dec. 17, 2010. ^*

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

ON BRIEF: Nancy G. Abudu, Laughlin McDonald, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, Tricia Herzfeld, American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellants. Janet M. Kleinfelter, Office of the Tennessee Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, James I. Pentecost, Jon A. York, Pentecost & Glenn, PLLC, Jackson, Tennessee, John L. Ryder, Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh, PLLC, Memphis, Tennessee, Danny Presley, Office of the Shelby County Attorney, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellees.

Before: MOORE and COOK, Circuit Judges; LUDINGTON, District Judge. ^**

COOK, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which LUDINGTON, D.J., joined. MOORE, J. (pp. 754-80), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

COOK, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs Terrence Johnson, Jim Harris, and Joshua Roberts ¹ -all Tennessee residents and convicted felons-filed a complaint alleging that, by conditioning restoration of their voting rights on payment of court-ordered victim restitution and child support obligations, Tennessee's voter re-enfranchisement statute violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, and the Ex Post Facto and Privileges or Immunities Clauses of the United States and Tennessee Constitutions. In a well-reasoned decision, the district court granted Defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings, and Plaintiffs appealed. Finding no error, we affirm.

I.

All three plaintiffs reside in various Tennessee counties: Johnson in Shelby County, Harris in Madison County, and Roberts in Davidson County. A jury convicted Johnson of wire fraud in 1999, and the court sentenced him to a term of imprisonment and ordered him to pay $40,000 in restitution. He completed his prison term, but remains unable to satisfy the restitution order. In addition, he owes a significant amount (more than $1,000) in overdue child support payments. Similarly, multiple felony convictions yielded prison sentences for Harris and Roberts, both of whom owed past-due child support obligations ($2,500 and $7,000, respectively) at the time they filed the complaint. Like Johnson, Harris and Roberts served their prison terms and are no longer on probation. Harris has since paid his overdue child support, and thus faces no impediment to applying for re-enfranchisement. He continues, however, to press a claim for nominal damages on account of any past constitutional harm.

The State of Tennessee, like many others, disenfranchises convicted felons, but provides them with a statutory procedure for regaining the franchise upon completion of their sentences and satisfaction of certain conditions. The re-enfranchisement statute at issue, Tennessee Code § 40-29-202, restores felons' eligibility “to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored” upon receipt of a pardon, discharge from custody after serving the maximum sentence imposed, or final discharge by the relevant county, state, or federal authority. The statute, however, carves out two exceptions to re-enfranchisement eligibility. It provides that:

(b) ... a person shall not be eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored, unless the person has paid all restitution to the victim or victims of the offense ordered by the court as part of the sentence[, and]

(c) ... a person shall not be eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored, unless the person is current in all child support obligations.

Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-29-202(b)-(c). The Tennessee legislature added these two conditions in 2006; before that, felons could apply for re-enfranchisement notwithstanding any outstanding restitution or child support obligations.

Having completed their prison and probation terms, Plaintiffs claim that they desire to vote in upcoming elections but remain ineligible to do so because of their unpaid restitution and child support obligations. They sued Defendants in the Middle District of Tennessee, challenging the constitutionality of the re-enfranchisement statute's restitution and child support provisions. Defendants sought judgment on the pleadings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c), which the district court granted, finding that Plaintiffs' constitutional challenges lacked merit. Plaintiffs timely appealed. ²

II.

On appeal, Plaintiffs claim that the district court erred in rejecting their challenges under the United States and Tennessee Constitutions. We review the district court's grant of a Rule 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings using the same de novo standard applicable to a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6). Roger Miller Music, Inc. v. Sony/ATV Publ'g, LLC, 477 F.3d 383, 389 (6th Cir.2007). “For purposes of a motion for judgment on the pleadings, all well-pleaded material allegations of the pleadings of the opposing party must be taken as true, and the motion may be granted only if the moving party is nevertheless clearly entitled to judgment.” Tucker v. Middleburg-Legacy Place, LLC, 539 F.3d 545, 549 (6th Cir.2008) (quoting JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. v. Winget, 510 F.3d 577, 581 (6th Cir.2007)).

A. Equal Protection

The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. The Equal Protection Clause prevents states from making distinctions that (1) burden a fundamental right; (2) target a suspect class; or (3) intentionally treat one individual differently from others similarly situated without any rational basis. Radvansky v. City of Olmsted Falls, 395 F.3d 291, 312 (6th Cir.2005). Plaintiffs argue that the district court erred by testing their equal protection challenge using the rational basis test, rather than strict scrutiny, because the re-enfranchisement statute: (1) burdens their fundamental right to vote; and (2) improperly discriminates against the indigent.

Plaintiffs' arguments miss the mark. The state may, within the bounds of the Constitution, strip convicted felons of their voting rights. Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24, 54, 94 S.Ct. 2655, 41 L.Ed.2d 551 (1974). Having lost their voting rights, Plaintiffs lack any fundamental interest to assert. See Wesley v. Collins, 791 F.2d 1255, 1261 (6th Cir.1986) (“It is undisputed that a state may constitutionally disenfranchise convicted felons, and that the right of felons to vote is not fundamental.” (citations omitted)). And contrary to Plaintiffs' other contention, wealth-based classifications do not discriminate against a suspect class. See Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 283-84, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986); Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S. 464, 470-71, 97 S.Ct. 2376, 53 L.Ed.2d 484 (1977). Accordingly, because Tennessee's re-enfranchisement law neither implicates a fundamental right nor targets a suspect class, the district court properly applied rational basis review, not strict scrutiny, to Plaintiffs' equal protection challenge. See San Antonio Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 29, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973).

To survive rational basis scrutiny, the statute need only be “rationally related to legitimate government interests,” Doe v. Mich. Dep't of State Police, 490 F.3d 491, 501 (6th Cir.2007) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted), and “must be upheld against equal protection challenge if there is any reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational basis for the classification,” FCC v. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313, 113 S.Ct. 2096, 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1993). “[E]very reasonable construction must be resorted to, in order to save a statute from unconstitutionality.” Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Fla. Gulf Coast Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 575, 108 S.Ct. 1392, 99 L.Ed.2d 645 (1988) (quoting Hooper v. California, 155 U.S. 648, 657, 15 S.Ct. 207, 39 L.Ed. 297 (1895)). Where rational basis review governs, we will not strike down a statute on equal protection grounds “unless the varying treatment of different groups or persons is so unrelated to the achievement of any combination of legitimate purposes that we can only conclude that the legislature's actions were irrational.” Vance v. Bradley, 440 U.S. 93, 97, 99 S.Ct. 939, 59 L.Ed.2d 171 (1979). “A ‘plaintiff may demonstrate that the government action lacks a rational basis ... either by negativing every conceivable basis which might support the government action, or by demonstrating that the challenged government action was motivated by animus or ill-will.’ ” Club Italia Soccer & Sports Org. v. Charter Twp. of Shelby, Mich., 470 F.3d 286, 298 (6th Cir.2006) (alteration in original) (quoting Warren v. City of Athens, 411 F.3d 697, 711 (6th Cir.2005)).

Defendants assert that the restitution and child-support-payment provisions in the re-enfranchisement statute advance legitimate interests of the state: protecting the ballot box from convicted felons who continue to break the law by failing to comply with court orders, encouraging payment of child support, and requiring felons to complete their entire sentences, including paying victim restitution. We find that the state's interests of encouraging payment of child support and compliance with court orders, and requiring...