Williams v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 04 June 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-4188,81-4188
• Citation: 677 F.2d 510
• Parties: George L. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John TAYLOR, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 510

677 F.2d 510

George L. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John TAYLOR, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 81-4188.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

June 4, 1982.

Willie L. Rose, North MS Rural Legal Services, Lawrence Young, Lexington, Miss., for plaintiff-appellant.

John B. Farese, Ashland, Miss., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, THORNBERRY and GARZA, Circuit Judges.

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge:

The central inquiry before this court is whether summary disposition of appellant's claim of selective disenfranchisement under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985 was appropriate. The district court granted summary judgment for the Marshall County Board of Election Commissioners because it found that appellant was not entitled to vote under any circumstances. It accepted the Commissioners' contention that they revoked appellant's voting rights solely because he was a convicted felon within the class of felons prohibited from voting by the Mississippi Legislature. Miss.Code Ann. § 23-5-35. Appellant George L. Williams, a black resident of Marshall County, Mississippi, insists that the Commissioners disenfranchised him because of his race and his political association with the Northern Mississippi United League in violation of his rights to due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Having studied the evidence available at this stage in the proceedings in light of applicable legal doctrine, we hold that the district court should not have granted summary judgment.

I. FACTS

Appellant was a registered voter of Marshall County from 1962 to 1979. On August 23, 1979, the Election Board, composed of three black members and two white members, disenfranchised appellant after the circuit clerk of the county, Lucy Carpenter, informed the Board that appellant had been convicted of grand larceny in Panola County in 1967. ¹ Section 23-5-35, Miss.Code Ann., provides in part that a person who has been convicted of burglary, theft, or obtaining money or goods under false pretenses "shall not be registered, or, if registered, the name of such person shall be erased from the registration book on which it may be found by the registrar or by the election commissioners."

Though appellant is a felon under Section 23-5-35, the procedure which led to his disenfranchisement is not that established by the Mississippi legislature. Under Mississippi law, the circuit clerk of each county is required to prepare and maintain a complete list of persons who are convicted of any crimes enumerated in § 23-5-35. The list includes persons convicted of crimes in the clerk's county and persons officially reported to him by any justice of the peace or mayor of any other town or city where a felon is convicted and no appeal is taken. Miss.Code Ann. § 23-5-37. The law then requires the clerk of each county to compare the list of felons with the registration books before the Election Board. The legislature obviously intended this procedure to accomplish the automatic and consistent disenfranchisement of all felons in the county.

The record does not explain specifically how the clerk and the commissioners learned of appellant's conviction. Appellant claims that several of the commissioners knew of his conviction many years before they disenfranchised him. The commissioners maintain, however, that they did not find out about his conviction until the circuit clerk told them. The circuit clerk stated in deposition that she discovered the conviction after someone left records of his conviction at the courthouse. Appellant believes that this "someone" was the Mayor of Holly Springs, who was retaliating against appellant because appellant, acting as precinct captain, prevented the Mayor from voting in the wrong precinct. Regardless of how the commissioners learned of appellant's conviction or how long they were aware of it, it seems clear from the record that the disenfranchisement of appellant was not accordant with the procedure established in § 23-5-37, nor was it part of any unofficial mechanism which consistently eliminated the names of felons from the registration lists. The record suggests that prior to appellant's disenfranchisement, the Election Board had removed the voting rights of only a few individuals because of their felony convictions.

Appellant admits that he is within the class of felons described in § 23-5-35, and he admits that the Election Board has the power to disenfranchise him if it follows the procedures created by the Mississippi legislature. Appellant objects to the manner in which the Election Board in Marshall County operates because, he claims, it permits discriminatory and arbitrary enforcement. To prove his claim, appellant points to other felons in the community who have not been disenfranchised although they fall within the statute. The Commissioners' actions after appellant brought this lawsuit tend to support his contention. Knowing the basis of this lawsuit, they requested the circuit clerk to compile a list of names of persons who had been convicted of a felony after 1976, the year which marks the beginning of the commissioners' term of office. The circuit clerk discovered fifty-six names of persons who had been convicted after 1976. The Election Board voted to strike these persons from the registration lists on July 31, 1980, but the record does not show whether they actually carried out their intention. It also does not reveal the number of felons presently voting in Marshall County who, like appellant, were convicted of felonies prior to 1976, and it does not explain whether it was possible for the Election Board to find out if there were felons in the county with convictions preceding 1976.

The kind of notice appellant received after the Election Board disenfranchised him appears equally unclear to this court. Appellant claims that he did not find out about the Board's action until he went to vote. The Commissioners claim that appellant learned of his disenfranchisement immediately after it happened. Ms. Carpenter, the circuit clerk, stated that she sent appellant a form letter which explained the action taken by the Board and notified appellant that procedures for reinstatement existed. In any event, appellant did not request a hearing before the Election Board after he learned of its action, and he did not try to obtain a pardon from the governor of Mississippi before proceeding in federal court.

Though appellant raises six points of error on this appeal, his arguments reduce to three. First, he attacks the failure of the Election Board to accord him notice and a hearing before it disenfranchised him. Second, he claims that the Board's action against him was unconstitutionally selective. Finally, he submits that the procedure for obtaining a pardon in Mississippi constitutes an irrebuttable presumption, and in the alternative, that pardons are granted arbitrarily. We hold that summary judgment was appropriate on the first and third claims, but we reverse and remand for a trial on appellant's claim of selective disenfranchisement.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The familiar standard for granting and denying summary judgment need not be discussed at length here for it is a litany recited in nearly every decision that confronts the issue. We note simply that it is proper only when "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). We recognize that Rule 56(c) generally requires the moving party to prove his right to judgment with such clarity that the nonmoving party cannot recover under any discernible circumstance. Jones v. Western Geophysical Co. of America, 669 F.2d 280, 282 (5th Cir. 1982); Joplin v. Bias, 631 F.2d 1235, 1237 (5th Cir. 1980).

III. PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS CLAIM

Appellant argues that the Mississippi disenfranchisement procedure is unconstitutional on its face because it does not guarantee the convicted felon notice of a pending disenfranchisement and an opportunity to be heard before any action is taken. Appellant contends that if he had received notice and a hearing he would have asserted a statute of limitations defense to the disenfranchisement proceedings.

Due process "is not a technical conception with a fixed content unrelated to time, place, and circumstances." Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 334, 96 S.Ct. 893, 902, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). It calls for "such procedural protections as the particular situation demands." Id. Under Mathews v. Eldridge, due process depends on three factors: first, the private interests involved; second, the risk of erroneous deprivation of these interests through the procedures used, and the probable value of additional procedures; and third, the government's interest, including the fiscal and administrative burden that additional procedures would entail. 424 U.S. at 335, 96 S.Ct. at 903; Central Freight Lines, Inc. v. United States, 669 F.2d 1063, 1068 (5th Cir. 1982). Furthermore, proof of a denial of due process may require a showing of substantial prejudice. E.g., United States v. Lober, 630 F.2d 335, 337 (5th Cir. 1980).

Appellant's interest in retaining his right to vote is constitutionally distinguishable from the "right to vote" claims of individuals who are not felons. See Shepherd v. Trevino, 575 F.2d 1110, 1112 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1129, 99 S.Ct. 1047, 59 L.Ed.2d 90 (1979). Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment allows a state to prohibit a felon from voting, and its classification of felons for voting restrictions must bear only a rational relation to the achieving of a legitimate state interest. Id. at 1115. Moreover, the Supreme Court has upheld registration procedures fundamentally identical to the Mississippi system. Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24, 94 S.Ct. 2655, 2659, 41 L.Ed.2d 551 (1974).

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