Brown v. Chote 8212 1583
| Decision Date | 07 May 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 71,71 |
| Citation | 36 L.Ed.2d 420,93 S.Ct. 1732,411 U.S. 452 |
| Parties | Edmund G. BROWN, Jr., Secretary of State of California, Appellant, v. Raymond G. CHOTE. —1583 |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Appellee, who sought to run for Congress but asserted that he was unable to pay California's statutory filing fee, filed a class action in District Court, challenging the constitutionality of the filing-fee statutes. In the face of an impending filing deadline, the District Court granted appellee's motion for a preliminary injunction. Held: Given the possibility that appellee would prevail on the merits and the fact that appellee's opportunity to be a candidate would have been foreclosed, absent interim relief, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in granting a preliminary injunction. Pp. 456—457.
342 F.Supp. 1353, affirmed and remanded.
Henry G. Ullerich, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellant.
Philip Elman, Washington, D.C., for appellee.
This case arises under 28 U.S.C. § 1253 on direct appeal from a three-judge district court in the Northern District of California. The court was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2281 when appellee called into question the constitutionality of those provisions of the California Elections Code which require candidates in a primary election to pay a filing fee prior to having their names listed on the primary ballot. Cal.Elections Code §§ 6552 and 6553 (Supp.1973). Under these provisions, candidates for the Federal House of Representatives must pay $425 (1% of the annual salary of the office); candidates for the Federal Senate must pay $850 (2% of the salary of the office). Those wishing to run for statewide offices must pay similar fees ranging in amount from $192 for State Assemblyman (1% of the annual salary) to $982 for Governor (2% of the annual salary). Other portions of the California Elections Code, not challenged in the present suit, require prospective candidates to file with appropriate state officials a declaration of candidacy and sponsor certificates. Cal. Elections Code §§ 6490—6491, 6494—6495 (1961 and Supp.1973).
Appellee commenced this class action on March 3, 1972. He moved, and was granted permission, by a single district judge, to proceed in forma pauperis and as his own attorney. In his complaint, appellee asserted that he wished to become a candidate for the Federal House of Representatives from the 17th District of California, and had taken the following steps to place his name in nomination in the June 6, 1972, California primary election. On February 17, 1972, appellee called the Registrar of Voters of Santa Clara County, an official designated by state law to dispense those forms necessary to place a name in nomination. Appellee was purportedly told by the Registrar or a member of his office that he was required to pay $425 in advance in order to secure blank copies of the necessary papers. According to appellee, the Registrar's Office also advised him that the papers would be delivered in exchange for a worthless check.1
Appellee proceeded immediately to the Registrar's Office where he presented a personal check for $425 and requested copies of the necessary forms. Across the face of the check, appellee had typed 'Written under protest for filing fee.'2 The Registrar issued the requisite papers to appellee and informed him that his check would be forwarded to the California Secretary of State when his completed papers were submitted. Subsequently, a Deputy Secretary of State informed appellee that his name would not be placed on the ballot if his check was not honored.3
Citing Bullock v. Carter, 405 U.S. 134, 92 S.Ct. 849, 31 L.Ed.2d 92 (1972), appellee asserted that California's filing-fee system was unconstitutional since it barred indigents, such as himself, from seeking elective office and from voting for the candidate of his choice. In addition to requesting declaratory and permanent injunctive relief, appellee moved the District Court to issue a pre-liminary injunction so as to allow him to participate as a candidate in the upcoming primary. Under state law, the final date on which appellee could submit nominating papers for that primary was March 10, 1972, one week away.
Because of the impending filing deadline, the District Court proceeded quickly to set the case for argument. On March 3, 1972, the same date on which the suit was filed, the single District Judge to whom the case was assigned entered an order requiring appellant to show cause why interlocutory relief should not be granted. The State was given five days in which to respond. It was not until March 7 that the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit was notified of the application for a three-judge court. On March 8, he designated the judges who were to compose the panel. On the same day, the court convened and heard oral argument. Because of the speed with which the case had developed, neither the court nor appellee had an opportunity prior to the hearing to consider appellant's return to the order to show cause, the only paper which the State had been able to prepare.
On March 9, 1972, one day after oral argument and one day before the deadline for filing nomination papers, the District Court granted appellee's motion for a preliminary injunction, stating:
'Since no . . . showing has been made by the State, concerning either the necessity, the purpose or the reasonableness of the filing fee statutes in question, we conclude that within the rationale and holding of Bullock (v. Carter, 405 U.S. 134, 92 S.Ct. 849, 31 L.Ed.2d 92 (1972)), plaintiff may prevail on the merits and that, absent a preliminary injunction, his constitutional right may be irreparably lost.' 342 F.Supp. 1353, 1355—1356. (Emphasis added.)
Under the terms of the preliminary injunction, the State was required to allow appellee and others similarly situated to place their names on the ballot without paying the required fee, so long as they were otherwise eligible for the applicable state or federal office and had deposited with an appropriate state official an affidavit attesting to their indigency.
The State appealed directly to this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1253. Its Jurisdictional Statement posed two questions:
'Under the decision of this Court in Bullock v. Carter, 405 U.S. 134, 92 S.Ct. 849, 31 L.Ed.2d 92 (1972), when a state statute requiring a candidate's filing fee of one per cent (1%) of the first year's salary for the office is challenged on Equal Protection grounds does the 'rational basis' or 'close scrutiny' standard of judicial review v. United States, 279 U.S. 229,
'Do California Elections Code sections 6552 and 6553 deny voters or indigent prospective candidates equal protection of the laws?'
Thus, the State of...
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