Hadnott v. Amos

• Decision Date: 11 October 1968
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 2757-N.
• Citation: 295 F. Supp. 1003
• Parties: Sallie M. HADNOTT et al., Plaintiffs, v. Mabel S. AMOS, as Secretary of State of the State of Alabama, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

295 F. Supp. 1003

Sallie M. HADNOTT et al., Plaintiffs, v. Mabel S. AMOS, as Secretary of State of the State of Alabama, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 2757-N.

United States District Court M. D. Alabama, N. D.

October 11, 1968.

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Charles Morgan, Jr., and Reber F. Boult, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Birmingham, Ala. and Melvin L. Wulf and Eleanor Norton, New York City, for plaintiffs.

MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., State of Alabama, John G. Bookout, Deputy Atty. Gen., William N. McQueen, Leslie Hall, and Gordon Madison, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., and L. Drew Redden, Rogers, Howard, Redden & Mills, Birmingham, Ala., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendants.

R. Clifford Fulford, Levine, Fulford, Gwaltney & Pope, Birmingham, Ala., for intervening defendant, Edward F. Mauldin, as Chairman of Alabama Citizens for Humphrey-Muskie, an unincorporated association, in behalf of himself and all other persons similarly situated and interested.

Before GODBOLD, Circuit Judge, and JOHNSON and PITTMAN, District Judges.

PER CURIAM:

This suit is an effort to secure places for more than 100 candidates of the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA) on the ballots to be used in the general election to be held in Alabama on November 5, 1968. Numerous provisions of the election laws of Alabama are challenged as unconstitutional on their faces, applied in an unconstitutional manner, and in conflict with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1973-73p. A three-judge district court has been convened under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2281. Notice of suit has been given to the Attorney General and Governor of Alabama, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2284(2).

We hold that the plaintiffs properly bring this suit as a class action, and that the defendant Edward A. Grouby properly represents a class of defendants composed of the Judges of Probate of all counties in Alabama. The plaintiffs' motion to file a second amendment to their complaint is granted.

To minimize the difficult problems which this controversy creates for public officials, candidates, and voters and to protect the interests of all insofar as possible this court entered a temporary restraining order on September 18, 1968, which is still in effect, directing that the NDPA candidates be certified by the Secretary of State as candidates, or included as candidates by Judges of Probate, as appropriate for the particular office sought.¹ The case is now submitted to us for decision on the application for a temporary injunction and on the merits for a final decree. We have considered the pleadings, many depositions of witnesses, voluminous documents, and other evidence, numerous briefs, and oral arguments by counsel.

This court, acting through a single judge, and through three judges, has not been reluctant to protect constitutional rights relating to the voting process.² Once this three-judge court acquired jurisdiction of the present case by reason of an injunction being sought against enforcement of state statutes on substantial federal constitutional grounds, we acquired jurisdiction over all the claims raised in the case, state and federal.³ But it does not follow that because a constitutional issue concerning voting or elections is properly presented to the court it necessarily should decide every contention and issue not of a federal constitutional nature which all the parties may raise about the election. This court, exercising its discretion, decides only the substantial issues concerning the Constitution of the United States. United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966).

2. The Corrupt Practices Law

Plaintiffs attack as unconstitutional on the face and as applied to them and their class the provisions of Tit. 17 §§ 274-275, Ala.Code (1958).⁴ These sections are part of a comprehensive state Corrupt Practices Law enacted by the Alabama legislature in 1915. Section 272 establishes the maximum amounts that various candidates may spend in their races. Section 277 requires that contributions made for or on behalf of the candidate be made to the committee named under § 274. Under § 279 the Committee must, within 30 days after the election, file (with the Secretary of State or the Judge of Probate, depending on the office sought) an itemized sworn statement of expenditures and contributions. Under § 281 these are public documents, open to inspection by any citizens. If the post-election statement is not made the candidate may not be certified as nominated or elected even though otherwise successful. Tit. 17, § 281.

The state has a legitimate interest in seeking to supervise spending in political campaigns. We have no illusions about the Corrupt Practices Law working perfectly. The proliferation of committees other than those named by the candidate himself is a fact of political life in Alabama. But the requirement that the candidate himself designate a committee is an appropriate and reasonable means by which the state may seek to achieve a legitimate end.⁵

Plaintiffs claim that disqualification of the candidate is an excessively harsh penalty for violation of § 274, and therefore an unconstitutional deprivation of due process of law, because less drastic alternatives are available, citing Dean Milk Co. v. City of Madison, 340 U.S. 349, 71 S.Ct. 295, 95 L.Ed. 329 (1951); Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963) and Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965). Section 275 provides for two penalties when the candidate fails to designate his finance committee—the failure is declared a corrupt practice, and his name "shall not be allowed to go upon the ballot." One guilty of a corrupt practice is guilty of a misdemeanor and must be fined not more than $500 and also may be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than six months. Tit. 17, § 332. Disqualification of the candidate is a direct and readily available means of securing compliance. But the remedy of refusing the candidate a place on the ballot has been employed repeatedly.⁶ We cannot accept the argument of plaintiffs that a criminal penalty is an alternative so much more desirable that it renders unconstitutional the remedy of denial of a place on the ballot, or that alone it is even an effective alternative. The undesirability of criminal action as the sole remedy is shown by the present case. The great majority of the NDPA candidates seek relatively minor local offices, are candidates for the first time, and are claimed to be in most instances unfamiliar with election laws and of procedures required of them, and in some instances unaware of their nominations. The suggestion that all of them are to be exposed to criminal action is not tenable.

Nor can we accept the contention that it is constitutionally impermissible to enforce the penalty of denial of a place on the ballot unless the candidate is guilty of fraud or intent to defraud. This misconceives the purpose and effect of the finance committee requirements, which provide for a publicly designated agency through whose hands funds are received, disbursed and audited and whose statements are filed and open for public inspection. The emphasis is on the spotlight of available public scrutiny.⁷

The Alabama courts uniformly, though at times reluctantly,⁸ have enforced violations of §§ 274-275 as mandatory if raised in a direct proceeding prior to the election. Herndon v. Lee, supra; Jones v. Phillips, supra; Owens v. Heartsill, supra; cf. Garrett v. Cuninghame, 211 Ala. 430, 100 So. 845 (1924), though only directory if raised after the election. Section 275 has not been amended since its enactment in 1915. Both sections were reenacted in 1940. Section 274 was amended in 1959 to clarify the filing of committee designations by candidates for the state legislature and the measurement of the five-day period. The mandatory penalty was not changed. "This the requirement of filing the appointment of a finance committee was just as much a part of his qualification as a candidate as was the paying of his qualification fee to the proper chairman of his party." Jones v. Phillips, 185 So.2d at 380.

When the Secretary of State declined to certify to the Judges of Probate NDPA candidates who filed nominations in her office she did not assert failure to comply with the Act as one of her motivations. Her motivation is irrelevant to a judicial determination of whether the Act is constitutional on its face.

The court holds that §§ 274-275 are not unconstitutional on their faces.

No unconstitutional application of the Corrupt Practices Law by selective enforcement has been proved with respect to the NDPA candidates, for filings with the Secretary of State or filings with the Judges of Probate. Selective enforcement could arise from back-dating committee designations filed late or from failure by the Secretary of State or the Judges of Probate to deny certification or a place on the ballot to candidates other than the plaintiffs' class who either did not file or filed late. As to the former, there is no evidence of any practice in the offices of the Secretary of State or any one of the 67 Judges of Probate of accepting late filings as timely. The evidence as to the Secretary of State is that filing dates are carefully watched and late filings not accepted.

As to the latter—selective application of the penalty—we are asked to infer that there is enforcement with an uneven hand by the fact that in this lawsuit the defendant state officers assert that members of the plaintiff class are not entitled to a place on the ballot because of failure to comply with § 274. This misconceives both the duties of this court and the facts. The plaintiffs seek an affirmative injunctive order requiring that their class be put on the ballot. As a prerequisite to that relief at the hands of the court they must show that they are qualified to be on the ballot. From the...