Arizona Min. Coalition v. Arizona Independent Red.

• Decision Date: 05 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. CV031036-PHXROS.,CV031036-PHXROS.
• Citation: Arizona Min. Coalition v. Arizona Independent Red., 284 F.Supp.2d 1240 (D. Ariz. 2003)
• Parties: ARIZONA MINORITY COALITION FOR FAIR REDISTRICTING, et al. Plaintiffs, v. ARIZONA INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION, et al. Defendants.
• Writing for the Court: Silver
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Arizona

284 F.Supp.2d 1240

ARIZONA MINORITY COALITION FOR FAIR REDISTRICTING, et al. Plaintiffs, v. ARIZONA INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION, et al. Defendants.

No. CV031036-PHXROS.

United States District Court, D. Arizona.

September 5, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Paul F. Eckstein, Esq., Michael S. Mandell, Brown & Bain PA, John P. Frank, Esq., Richard A. Halloran, Esq., Joshua Grabel, Lewis & Roca LLP, Aaron Kizer, Esq., Alan David Braun, Esq., George M. Sterling, Esq., Phoenix, AZ, for Plaintiffs.

Lisa Tewksbury Hauser, Esq., Cameron Charles Artigue, Esq., Leonard W. Aragon, Gammage & Burnham PLC, Jose de Jesus Rivera, Esq., Haralson Miller Pitt & McAnally PLC, Mary Ruth O'Grady, Joseph Andrew Kanefield, Phoenix, AZ, for Defendants.

ORDER

SILVER, District Judge.

On May 30, 2003, Defendants removed this case, alleging a challenge to the legislative and Congressional districts drawn by the Defendant Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission ("the Commission"), from state court. Pending before the Court are the Plaintiff Arizona Minority Coalition's ("Coalition") Motion to Remand and Plaintiff-Intervenor Navajo Nation's Motion to Remand ("Motions"). The Motions to remand will be granted.

I. Background

On March 6, 2002, the Arizona Minority Coalition, together with a number of other Plaintiffs, filed a complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court in this action challenging the legality of the legislative districts drawn by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The complaint sought mandamus, declaratory, and injunctive relief under Arizona law. On March 14, 2002, a number of other Plaintiffs (the "Ricarte Plaintiffs") filed a separate action challenging the federal Congressional districts drawn by the Commission. The two actions were consolidated in state court, and many parties, including the Navajo Nation, intervened on both sides.

In May 2002, many of the same parties, including the Coalition, the Navajo Nation. and the Commission, filed suit in federal court for a three-judge panel to establish an interim Arizona legislative redistricting plan for the 2002 elections and that approved an interim redistricting plan for the 2002 elections. Navajo Nation v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, 230 F.Supp.2d 998 (D.Ariz.2002). The Commission then adopted a new legislative map in August 2002 for elections from 2004 through 2010. The Coalition filed an Amended Complaint on October 16, 2002 challenging the new maps, again seeking relief only under state law. The matter was set for trial in state court beginning on July 8, 2003. However, before trial, the parties filed a final round of cross-motions for summary judgment, including, on May 15, 2003, a Motion for Summary Judgment (the "May 15 Motion") filed by the Coalition expressly arguing that the Commission's August 2002 redistricting plan "violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the United States Constitution and the Arizona Constitution." Motion at 2.

On May 30, 2003, Defendants filed a Notice of Removal on the premise that the Coalition had introduced a new federal claim in its May 15 Motion. On June 15, 2003, the Coalition and the Ricarte Plaintiffs filed Arizona Minority Coalition and Ricarte Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand, and Navajo Nation filed a Motion to Remand, or in the Alternative, for Severance and Remand ("Remand Motions"). On July 23, 2003, the Court granted a Motion to Transfer the case from Judge Broomfield to this Court in light of the Court's previous involvement in the redistricting litigation in Navajo Nation. Before considering whether to convene a three-judge panel, the Court must determine if it possesses jurisdiction or must remand the case to state court.¹

II. Federal Jurisdiction

A. The law

"A civil action filed in a state court may be removed to federal court if the claim is one `arising under' federal law. [28 U.S.C.] § 1441. To determine whether the claim arises under federal law, [courts] examine the `well-pleaded' allegations of the complaint and ignore potential defenses." Beneficial National Bank v. Anderson, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 123 S.Ct. 2058, 2062, 156 L.Ed.2d 1 (2003). "The plaintiff is the master of his or her complaint and many avoid federal jurisdiction by exclusive reliance on state law." Easton v. Crossland Mortgage Corp., 114 F.3d 979, 982 (9th Cir.1997). However, "[a] plaintiff may not avoid federal jurisdiction by omitting from the complaint federal law essential to his or her claim or by casting in state law terms a claim that can be made only under federal law." Easton, 114 F.3d at 982. Further, "[e]ven though state law creates appellant's causes of action, its case might still `arise under' the laws of the United States if a well-pleaded complaint established that its right to relief under state law requires resolution of a substantial question of federal law in dispute between the parties." Franchise Tax Board of State of Cal. v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust for Southern Cal., 463 U.S. 1, 13, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983).

The procedure for removal jurisdiction is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 1446. Section 1446(b) provides, "[t]he notice of removal of a civil action or proceeding shall be filed within thirty days after the receipt by the defendant, through service or otherwise, of a copy of the initial pleading setting forth the claim for relief upon which such action or proceeding is based...." Further, "[i]f the case stated by the initial pleading is not removable, a notice of removal may be filed within thirty days after receipt by the defendant, through service or otherwise, of a copy of an amended pleading, motion, order or other paper from which it first be ascertained that the case is one which is or has become removable. . . ." Though the Amended Complaint was filed on October 16, 2002, Defendants contend that the notice of removal is timely filed on May 30 because the existence of a federal question was first disclosed within the Coalition's motion for summary judgment filed May 15, 2003.

All parties concede that the Court shall exercise § 1441 removal jurisdiction only if the Court finds federal question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, which provides that "district courts shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." The Complaint itself does not state a federal claim; the question presented is whether subsequent filings by the Coalition either reveal or create a federal claim sufficient to support federal question jurisdiction.

B. The evolution of Plaintiffs' legal arguments

The potential jurisdictional questions in this case have arisen at a late stage of the state proceedings because Plaintiffs' original Complaint and Amended Complaint present only state claims, yet the Coalition's May 15 Motion asks for summary judgment on federal issues that are not mentioned in the Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs have offered a number of explanations for this apparent shift in legal theories, and in their Response to the Motion to Remand, argue unconvincingly that the May 15 Motion did not address federal equal protection and due process theories. To discern whether the Court has jurisdiction, the Court must first discern the precise nature of Plaintiffs' claims.

The Amended Complaint, filed October 16, 2002 seeks mandamus, declaratory relief, and injunctive relief for alleged violations of the Arizona Constitution. Specifically, the Complaint alleges violations of the so-called "Competitive Redistricting Clause," Ariz. Const. art. IV, part 2, § 1 ("the Clause"). Plaintiffs contend that the Commission did not comply with the Arizona Constitution's mandate that "[t]o the extent practicable, competitive districts should be favored where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals." Am Compl. ¶ 18.²

As more fully explained in Navajo Nation, 230 F.Supp.2d at 1001-2, the Clause was enacted pursuant to Proposition 106, passed by the Arizona voters in November 2000, and requires the establishment of a "`clean slate' creating equally populous districts in a grid-like pattern across the state." Id. These districts are then adjusted by the Commission "as necessary" to accommodate six goals: compliance with the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, and, "to the extent practicable," equal population between districts, geographically compact and contiguous districts, district boundaries that reflect communities of interest, district lines using visible geographic features, city, town and county boundaries, and undivided census tracts, and finally, competitive districts "where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals." Ariz. Const. art. IV, part 2, § 1(15). Thus, the Arizona Constitution mandates that the Commission favor competitive districts, though it diminishes the significance of this goal below the importance of the five other goals listed in the Clause.

In the Amended Complaint, Plaintiffs argue that the Commission ignored the goal of competitive districts, and base their argument on the Commission's rejection of a number of "test maps" created by Doug Johnson, a Commission redistricting consultant. Plaintiffs allege that "[t]hese test maps contain Legislative Districts that complied with all the redistricting criteria set forth in Proposition 106 and significantly increased the competitiveness of the legislative map adopted by the Commission on October 14, 2001." Am. Compl. ¶ 32. Further, they allege that "[t]he Commission rejected all of these changes to create more competitive Legislative Districts when it adopted its final legislative map for the 2004 through 2010 elections on August 14, 2002." Am. Compl. ¶ 33. One of Plaintiffs' contentions is that the Commission "fail[ed] to utilize new and contemporaneous competitiveness data." Am. Compl. ¶ 36. Another contention directly relevant to Plaintiffs'...