Brien v. Skinner 8212 1058

• Decision Date: 16 January 1974
• Docket Number: No. 72,72
• Citation: 94 S.Ct. 740,414 U.S. 524,38 L.Ed.2d 702
• Parties: Edward F. O'BRIEN et al., Appellants, v. Albert SKINNER, Sheriff, Monroe County, et al. —1058
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

414 U.S. 524

94 S.Ct. 740

38 L.Ed.2d 702

Edward F. O'BRIEN et al., Appellants,

v Albert SKINNER, Sheriff, Monroe County, et al.

No. 72—1058.

Argued Nov. 6, 1973.

Decided Jan. 16, 1974.

Syllabus

Appellants, who are incarcerated in jail as convicted misdemeanants or pretrial detainees unable to make bail but who are under no voting disability under state law, and who requested but were denied the right to register and vote under mobile registration, absentee voting, or other procedures, brought this action challenging the constitutionality of the New York election laws. The contested statutes allow qualified persons to register and vote by absentee measures if precluded from personally doing so because of illness, physical disability, their duties, occupation, or business, and permit absentee voting (but not registration) if the voters are vacationing away from their residence on election day or are confined in a veterans' hospital. The state trial and intermediate appellate courts initially viewed appellants' confinement as physical disability and held that they were entitled to vote by absentee ballot. The New York Court of Appeals reversed that determination, concluding that the disability imposed by incarceration did not come within the terms of the statute. Held: The challenged provisions as thus construed, which raise no question of disenfranchisement of persons convicted of criminal conduct and permit incarcerated persons to register and vote by absentee means if confined in a county where they are not residents, violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as they arbitrarily discriminate between categories of qualified voters. Pp. 528—531.

31 N.Y.2d 317, 338 N.Y.S.2d 890, 291 N.E.2d 134, reversed and remanded.

William D. Eggers, Rochester, N.Y., for appellants.

Michael K. Consedine, Rochester, N.Y., for appellees.

Mr. Chief Justice BURGER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeals of New York taken by 72 persons who were at the time of the trial of the original action, detained in confinement. Some are simply detained awaiting trial, others are confined pursuant to misdemeanor convictions; none is subject to any voting disability under the laws of New York.

The Court of Appeals of New York,¹ by divided vote, held that failure of the State to provide appellants with any means of registering and voting was not a violation of the New York statutes and not a denial of any federal or state consitutional right.

Before the November 1972 general elections in New York, the appellants applied to the authorities of Monroe County, including the Board of Elections, to establish a mobile voters registration unit in the county jail in compliance with a mobile registration procedure which had been employed in some county jails in New York State. This request was denied and appellants then requested that they be either transported to polling places under appropriate restrictions or, in the alternative, that they be permitted to register and vote under New York's absentee voting provisions which, essentially, provide that qualified voters are allowed to register and vote by absentee measures if they are unable to appear personally because of illness or physical disability, or because of their 'duties, occupation or business.' The statutes also allow absentee voting, but not registration, if the voter is away from his residence on election day because he is confined in a veterans'- hospital or is away on vacation.² The election authorities denied the request, taking the position that they were under no obligation to permit the appellants to register or to vote in person and that inmates did not qualify for absentee voting under the provisions of the New York statutes.

The Supreme Court for Monroe County in New York considered the claims presented by the appellants and treated them as a proceeding in the nature of mandamus. The conclusion reached by that court was that the legislature of New York had provided for absentee registration and voting by any voter unable to appear personally because of confinement in an institution (other than a mental institution). The court concluded that the election laws should be construed to apply to an inmate confined in jail and not otherwise disenfranchised since this constituted a 'physical disability' in the sense that he was physically disabled from leaving his confinement to go to the polls to vote, and that the statute therefore entitled such persons to vote by absentee ballot. However, the court noted that there was no showing that any of the persons claiming these rights had timely filed all the necessary forms but that this could yet be accomplished in time for voting by absentee ballot in November 1972. The Appellate Division of the Fourth Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of New York on review gave a similar construction to the election laws, stating:

'We believe that petitioners, being so confined, are physically disabled from voting and should be permitted to do so by casting absentee ballots.' 40 A.D.2d 942, 337 N.Y.S.2d 700 (1972).

On appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, however, these holdings were reversed, that court stating:

'The right to vote does not protect or insure against those circumstances which render voting impracti- cable. The fact of incarceration imposes many other disabilities, some private, others public, of which voting is only one. Under the circumstances, and in view of the Legislature's failure to extend these absentee provisions to others similarly disadvantaged, it hardly seems plausible that petitioners' right to vote has been arbitrarily denied them. It is enough that these handicaps, then, are functions of attendant impracticalities or contingencies, not legal design.' 31 N.Y.2d 317, 320—321, 338 N.Y.S.2d 890, 893—894, 291 N.E.2d 134, 136—137.

Judge Fuld dissented, being of the view that §§ 117—a and 153 a of the Election Law of New York should be read in the manner announced by the Appellate Division. Judge Burke, joining Judge Fuld, agreed, stating additionally that any construction of the election law precluding appellants from exercising their right to register and vote violated the equal protection guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment.

It is important to note at the outset that the New York election laws here in question do not raise any question of disenfranchisement of a person because of conviction for criminal conduct. As we noted earlier, these appellants are not disabled from voting except by reason of not being able physically—in the very literal sense—to go to the polls on election day or to make the appropriate registration in advance by mail. The New York statutes are silent concerning registration or voting facilities in jails and penal institutions, except as they provide for absentee balloting. If a New York resident eligible to vote is confined in a county jail in a county in which he does not reside, paradoxically, he may secure an absentee ballot and vote and he may also register by mail, presumably because he is 'unavoidably absent from the county of his residence.' N.Y. Election Law § 117(1)(b) (1964).³

Thus, under the New York statutes, two citizens awaiting trial—or even awaiting a decision whether they are to be charged sitting side by side in the same cell, may receive different treatment as to voting rights. As we have noted, if the citizen is confined in the county of his legal residence he cannot vote by absentee ballot as can his cellmate whose residence is in the adjoining county. Although neither is under any legal bar to voting, one of them can vote by absentee ballot and the other cannot.

This Court had occasion to examine claims similar to those presented here in McDonald v. Board of Election Comm'rs, 394 U.S. 802, 89 S.Ct. 1404, 22 L.Ed.2d 739 (1969). There a state statute provided for absentee voting by persons 'medically incapacitated' and for pretrial detainees who were incarcerated outside their county of residence. Unlike the present case, however, in McDonald 'there (was) nothing in the record to show that appellants (were) in fact absolutely prohibited from voting by the State . . .,' id., at 808 n. 7, 89 S.Ct., at 1408, since there was the possibility that the State might furnish some other alternative means of voting. Id., at 808, 89 S.Ct., at 1408. Essentially the Court's disposition of the claims in McDonald rested on failure of proof.

More recently in Goosby v. Osser, 409 U.S. 512, 93 S.Ct. 854, 35 L.Ed.2d 36 (1973), the Court again considered the problem of inmate voting and concluded that, unlike the voting restrictions in the McDonald case, the statute there in question was an absolute bar to voting because of a specific provision that 'persons confined in a penal institution' were not permitted to vote by absentee ballot. It is clear, therefore, that the appellants here, like the petitioners in Goosby, bring themselves within the precise fact structure that the McDonald holding foreshadowed.

New York's election statutes, as construed by its highest court, discriminate between categories of qualified voters in a way that, as applied to pretrial detainees and misdemeanants, is wholly arbitrary. As we have noted, New York extends absentee registration privileges to eligible citizens who are unable to appear personally because of 'illness or physical disability,' and to citizens required to be outside their counties of residence on normal registration days because of their 'duties, occupation or business.' In addition, New York extends absentee voting privileges to those voters unable to get to the polls because of illness or physical disability, to those who are inmates of veterans' bureau hospitals, and to those who are absent from their home county on election day either because of 'duties, occupation or business' or vacation. Indeed, those held in jail awaiting trial in a county...