Federal Election Commission v. Hall-Tyner Election Campaign Committee, HALL-TYNER
| Decision Date | 06 May 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 963,HALL-TYNER,D,963 |
| Citation | 678 F.2d 416 |
| Parties | FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v.ELECTION CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, et al., Defendants-Appellees. ocket 81-6229. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Richard B. Bader, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Federal Election Commission, Washington, D. C. (Charles N. Steele, Jeffrey H. Bowman, Miriam Aguiar, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.
John J. Abt, New York City (Jeffrey Schwartz, New York City, of counsel), for defendants-appellees.
Victor Rabinowitz, Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, New York City, for amicus curiae National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee.
Arthur Eisenberg, New York City, Joel Gora, Brooklyn, N. Y., for amicus curiae New York Civil Liberties Union.
Before KAUFMAN, VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judges, and LOWE, District Judge. *
Anonymity has long been essential to uninhibited political activity in a democratic society. The secret ballot ensures that no one must answer for the vote he casts. Confidentiality prevents the apprehension of reprisal that threatens to suppress the robust interchange of ideas at the core of the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and protection of privacy in association. A society confident in its stability does not fear the voice of opposition. Indeed, unafraid of dissent, we recognize our ability to exhibit special indulgence to nurture the free expression of minority views. Realizing that mere identification with certain disfavored ideologies can result in harassment which may silence those voices, the Constitution protects private support of political associations.
Today we are asked to determine whether, in this instance, the Constitution demands that a particular minority political group be exempted from certain disclosure and recordkeeping requirements to safeguard the privacy which is essential to the right of association of its members. This group, the Hall-Tyner Election Campaign Committee ("Committee"), supported the campaign of the candidates of the Communist Party, U. S. A., Gus Hall and Jarvis Tyner, in their drive to be elected President and Vice-President of the United States, respectively, in the 1976 national elections. The Federal Election Commission ("FEC") would have us find that the Committee and its Treasurer, Frances Bordofsky, must reveal the names and maintain records of contributors to its campaign coffers in the 1976 presidential election. Judge Gagliardi granting summary judgment in favor of the Committee, held that the disclosure and recordkeeping requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act, 2 U.S.C. § 431 et seq., could not constitutionally be applied to the Committee and Bordofsky. 1 We agree, and for the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
The Federal Election Campaign Act ("FECA") imposes numerous restraints upon individuals and groups engaged in political activities relating to national elections. 2 At issue here is the applicability of the Act's recordkeeping and disclosure requirements to the Committee and Bordofsky. The literal terms of FECA required Bordofsky to maintain records specifying the name and address of each person who had contributed more than $50 to the Committee, and the name, address, occupation and principal place of business of each person contributing an amount in excess of $100. 3 On its face, the Act also mandated that the information concerning those who had contributed more than $100 be reported to the Federal Election Commission. 4
On March 5, 1976, in response to a request from Bordofsky, the general counsel of the Committee, John J. Abt, rendered a written opinion that the recordkeeping and disclosure requirements of FECA were unconstitutional as applied to the Committee and its treasurer, Bordofsky. Pursuant to Abt's opinion, the Committee advised all potential contributors that they might, if they so desired, make their contributions anonymously, in which case the Committee would neither record nor report their names. In reports filed with the Federal Election Commission between April 10, 1976 and April 10, 1979, the Committee acknowledged financial contributions of $423,893.62. The itemized receipts included 76 contributors listed by name and 424 contributors listed as "anonymous." 5
After an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Committee to comply with the requirements of FECA, the Federal Election Commission instituted this civil enforcement action pursuant to 2 U.S.C. § 437g(a)(5)(B). The Committee conceded that it had failed to comply with the Act. It argued, instead, that the recordkeeping and disclosure requirements were unconstitutional as applied to the Committee and Bordofsky on the ground that such application would abridge the First Amendment freedom of association rights of the Committee's supporters.
Upon cross-motions for summary judgment, Judge Gagliardi dismissed the FEC's complaint, holding that the recordkeeping and disclosure provisions of FECA are unconstitutional as applied to the Committee. He described the test for determining whether the application of the challenged portions of the FECA to the Committee could pass constitutional muster by applying the standards established in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976). Specifically, he recognized the ultimate question to be answered is whether the undisputed evidence in the record establishes, as a matter of law, a reasonable probability that compelled disclosure of the names of contributors " 'will subject them to threats, harassment, or reprisals from either Government officials or private parties?' " Federal Election Comm'n v. Hall-Tyner Election Campaign, 524 F.Supp. 955, 958 (S.D.N.Y.1981). The evidence relied on by the district judge included the extensive body of state and federal legislation subjecting Communist Party members to civil disability and criminal liability, reports and affidavits documenting the history of governmental surveillance and harassment of Communist Party members, as well as affidavits indicating the desire of contributors to the Committee to remain anonymous. Based on this evidence, the judge concluded that there existed a reasonable probability of harassment of identified contributors to the Committee who were, in fact, sponsoring candidates of the Communist Party.
Clearly, this undisputed evidence demonstrated that mandatory disclosure and recordkeeping would discourage numerous individuals from contributing to the Committee on the basis of the reasonable probability that they would later be subjected to governmental or private harassment and rebuke. Accordingly, we decline to apply the recordkeeping and disclosure provisions of FECA to the Committee for such requirements would violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.
The genesis of our holding lies in an analysis of the extent to which the Government may regulate election practices and procedure when such controls threaten to unreasonably impair the rights of privacy of association and belief guaranteed by the First Amendment. Our task is somewhat simplified because we do not write on a tabula rasa. In Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976), the Supreme Court comprehensively assessed the constitutionality of FECA. 6 The Court concluded that although the disclosure provisions of FECA were not unconstitutional on their face, they might well be unconstitutional as applied to particular disfavored minority parties or groups. To apply the teachings of Buckley we must begin with a review of the constitutional and doctrinal trends which have shaped the contours of First Amendment protections for those with unpopular views who venture into the arena of political debate.
Free speech would be a hollow right indeed if it meant only that the majority remained free to express thoughts consistent with conventional wisdom. The principle of free expression requires that all groups remain unfettered when expounding their ideologies, regardless of how universally disfavored or repugnant those opinions may be. In his first Inaugural Address nearly two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson eloquently phrased this fundamental precept:
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. 7
The diversity of thought which our Nation cherishes is at the core of our intellectual richness. The First Amendment represents a faith in the ability of the public to discard dangerous or erroneous policies, and a belief that the Republic is strengthened by an uninhibited competition of ideas. As Justice Holmes taught, the theory of our Constitution is that "the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas-that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market ...." Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630, 40 S.Ct. 17, 22, 63 L.Ed. 1173 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting). 8 Tolerance of the unpopular and disagreeable is the hallmark of a truly free society. 9
There is a paramount public interest in maintaining a vigorous and aggressive political system which includes even participants whose ideologies are abhorrent to that system. This principle repels totalitarianism and the rise of dictators by permitting even those whose views are anathema to ours to partake in the dynamics of an open and vigorous election without fear of reprisal.
Acknowledging the importance of fostering the existence of minority political parties, we must also recognize that such groups rarely have a firm financial foundation. If apprehension is bred in the minds of contributors to fringe organizations by fear that their support of an unpopular ideology will be revealed, they may cease to...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Vermont Right to Life Committee, Inc. v. Sorrell
...v. Ohio Elections Comm'n, 514 U.S. 334, 347, 115 S.Ct. 1511, 131 L.Ed.2d 426 (1995). See also Federal Election Comm'n v. Hall-Tyner Election Campaign Comm., 678 F.2d 416, 421 (2d Cir.1982) (because compelled disclosure can seriously impair right to privacy of association and belief, permiss......
-
Goland v. U.S.
...Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Commn., 459 U.S. 87, 103 S.Ct. 416, 74 L.Ed.2d 250 (1982). In Federal Election Comm'n v. Hall-Tyner Election Campaign Comm., 678 F.2d 416 (1982), the Second Circuit similarly found that undisputed evidence established a reasonable probability of repri......
-
Brooklyn Navy Yard Asbestos Litigation, In re
...n. 7 (S.D.N.Y.1981) ("any facts subject to judicial notice may be properly considered in a motion for summary judgment"), aff'd, 678 F.2d 416 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1145, 103 S.Ct. 785, 74 L.Ed.2d 992 (1983). Indeed, we recently recognized in a BNY asbestos case that the mili......
-
Federal Election Com'n v. Florida for Kennedy Committee
...to comply with the Federal Election Campaign Act's disclosure and recordkeeping requirements. Federal Election Commission v. Hall-Tyner Campaign Committee, 678 F.2d 416 (2d Cir. 1982). The Supreme Court in Buckley recognized that the Federal Election Campaign Act could, if applied to some g......