Libertarian Party of N.C. v. State
| Decision Date | 20 October 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. COA08-1413.,COA08-1413. |
| Citation | 688 S.E.2d 700 |
| Parties | LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NORTH CAROLINA, Sean Haugh, as Executive Director of the party; Pamela Guignard and Rusty Sheridan, as Libertarian candidates for Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina; Justin Cardone and David Gable, as Libertarian candidates for Charlotte City Council; Richard Norman and Thomas Leinbach, as Libertarian candidates for Winston-Salem City Council; and Jennifer Schulz as a registered voter, Plaintiffs, and The North Carolina Green Party; Elena Everett, as Chair and Kai Schwandes, as Co-Chair of the party; Nicholas Triplett, as a prospective North Carolina Green Party candidate for public office; Hart Matthews and Gerald Surh, as members of the party and qualified voters, Intervenors, v. STATE of North Carolina; Roy Cooper, Attorney General of North Carolina; State Board of Elections; and Gary O. Bartlett, as Executive Director of the State Board, Defendants. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, and American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, by Katherine Lewis Parker, Raleigh, for intervenors-appellants.
Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by Alexander McC. Peters, Susan K. Nichols, Karen E. Long, Special Deputy Attorneys General, for defendants-appellees.
Plaintiffs ("plaintiffs-Libertarians") and intervenors ("intervenors-Greens") appeal from the trial court's determination that N.C.G.S. §§ 163-96(a)(1)-(2) and 163-97.1 do not violate Article I, Sections 1, 10, 12, 14, and 19, or Article VI, Sections 1 and 6, of the North Carolina Constitution. For the reasons stated, we affirm.
The parties stipulate to the following facts:
1. Historically, states, including North Carolina, have imposed requirements on political parties to gain and retain recognition for their parties and their affiliated candidates.
2. To gain recognition in North Carolina, a political party has been required to submit a petition with the signatures of a number of registered voters supporting the recognition of that party; once a party has obtained recognition as a political party, its candidates have been listed on ballots throughout North Carolina.
3. From 1935 through 1981, the North Carolina signature requirement was 10,000 registered voters. North Carolina Code of 1935 § 5913.
....
8. In 1983, the General Assembly increased the number of registered voter signatures required for recognition of a new political party ... to two percent of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election. 1983 Sess. Laws C. 576, § 1. Parties who are seeking recognition as political parties in North Carolina may begin gathering these signatures as soon as the gubernatorial election is over.
9. For the 2008 election, a party must submit 69,734 signatures from registered voters in order to gain recognition as a political party pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 163-96. These signatures must be submitted to the State Board of Elections by the first day of June.
....
11. In order to retain recognition, a political party has historically been required to receive a threshold percentage of the votes cast statewide in the most recent gubernatorial or presidential election.
12. From 1935 to 1949, the ballot retention requirement was 3% of the statewide vote. North Carolina Code of 1935 § 5913.
13. In 1948, the States Right Party polled 8.8% of the vote.
14. In the next legislative session, the General Assembly raised the ballot retention requirement to 10% of the statewide vote.
15. Only one party other than the Democratic or Republican Party, the American Party in 1968, has ever met the 10% requirement. The Democratic and Republican Parties are the only two political parties to maintain continuous recognition since the enactment of N.C.G.S. §§ 163-96 and -97.
16. Effective January 1, 2007, after the filing of this action on September 21, 2005, the General Assembly amended N.C.G.S. § 163-96 to lower the retention requirement to 2%. 2006 Sess. Laws C. 234, §§ 1 and 2.
17. Once a political party is officially recognized, under § 163-96 its candidate must receive at least 2% of the statewide vote for governor or president for the party to remain officially recognized and for its candidates to be listed on the ballot for any office anywhere in the state. Thus, even if candidates of the party receive more than two percent of the vote in a particular city or county, they cannot be listed on the ballot and their party identified in ballots in that community if the party did not receive two percent of the vote statewide.
....
38. Persons desiring to get on the ballot in North Carolina can also qualify as unaffiliated candidates pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 163-122 and as write-in candidates pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 163-123, though in neither circumstance will the candidate's political party appear with a party label. N.C.G.S. § 163-122 requires unaffiliated candidates for statewide office to submit signatures of registered voters equal to two percent of the voters who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election; for district or local offices, signatures equal to four percent of the registered voters in that district or locality must be submitted. N.C.G.S. § 163-123 requires write-in candidates for statewide office to submit 500 signatures of registered voters.
The parties further stipulate that the Libertarian Party of North Carolina has been in continuous existence since 1976, and has achieved recognition as a political party in North Carolina in most recent elections through the petition process set forth in N.C.G.S. § 163-96(a)(2). On the other hand, members of the North Carolina Green Party "have never met the state's petition requirements; have never gained recognition as a political party pursuant to [N.C.G.S.] § 163-96; and consequently, have never received the benefits of party recognition, including the right to run as candidates for public office under the Green Party label."
On 21 September 2005, plaintiffs-Libertarians filed a declaratory judgment action seeking to declare "the state statutes governing the recognition of political parties" in violation of several provisions of the North Carolina Constitution. On 7 April 2006, intervenors-Greens filed a motion to intervene, which the trial court granted. On 26 February 2007, with the consent of defendants, plaintiffs-Libertarians and intervenors-Greens jointly filed a Second Amended Complaint asking the trial court to declare "the state statutes governing the recognition of political parties" in violation of the North Carolina Constitution under Article I, Sections 1, 10, 12, 14, and 19, and Article VI, Sections 1 and 6. Defendants filed their Answer to the Second Amended Complaint on 28 March 2007. Defendants moved the trial court to dismiss the action pursuant to North Carolina Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and plaintiffs-Libertarians and intervenors-Greens filed a motion seeking summary judgment. The trial court denied both motions.
After considering the parties' arguments and evidence, the Wake County Superior Court concluded that plaintiffs-Libertarians and intervenors-Greens failed to overcome the presumption that the challenged statutes are constitutional, and further concluded that N.C.G.S. §§ 163-96(a)(1)-(2) and 163-97.1 do not violate Article I, Sections 1, 10, 12, 14 and 19, or Article VI, Sections 1 and 6, of the North Carolina Constitution. Accordingly, on 27 May 2008, the trial court entered judgment in favor of defendants. On 10 June 2008, plaintiffs-Libertarians and intervenors-Greens gave timely notice of appeal to this Court from the trial court's order.
Defendants first raise the question of whether plaintiffs-Libertarians' appeal is moot because defendants claim that "any decision of this Court cannot have a practical effect on [plaintiffs-Libertarians'] status as a recognized political party." "[A] declaratory judgment should issue (1) when [it] will serve a useful purpose in clarifying and settling the legal relations at issue, and (2) when it will terminate and afford relief from the uncertainty, insecurity and controversy giving rise to the proceeding." Augur v. Augur, 356 N.C. 582, 588, 573 S.E.2d 125, 130 (2002) () (internal quotation marks omitted). When, during the course of litigation, "`it develops that the relief sought has been granted or that the questions originally in controversy between the parties are no longer at issue, the case should be dismissed, for courts will not entertain or proceed with a cause merely to determine abstract propositions of law.'" Pearson v. Martin, 319 N.C. 449, 451, 355 S.E.2d 496 497 (quoting In re Peoples, 296 N.C. 109, 147-48, 250 S.E.2d 890, 912 (1978), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 929, 99 S.Ct. 2859, 61 L.Ed.2d 297 (1979)), reh'g denied, 319 N.C. 678, 356 S.E.2d 789 (1987); see also Morris v. Morris, 245 N.C. 30, 36, 95 S.E.2d 110, 114 (1956) (). Nevertheless, when "(1) the challenged action [is] in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration, and (2) there [is] a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party would be subjected to the same action again," a case may be excepted from the mootness doctrine as being "capable of repetition, yet evading review." See Crumpler v. Thornburg, 92 N.C.App. 719, 723, 375 S.E.2d 708, 711 (alterations in original) (internal quotation marks omitted), disc. review denied, 324 N.C. 543, 380 S.E.2d 770 (1989).
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