Meeks v. Tallahatchie County
| Decision Date | 19 August 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 58447,58447 |
| Citation | 513 So.2d 563 |
| Parties | Eddie MEEKS v. TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY, Mississippi Democratic Executive Committee, and Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
I.
Today's appeal requires that we construe a section of our recently enacted Elections Code, a provision placing severe restraints upon political activities of county commissioners of election. Specifically at issue is whether a commissioner may resign and seek another office during the term for which he was elected commissioner. We find that, by virtue of constitutionally valid legislative enactment, our law disqualifies an elections commissioner from such candidacy. We affirm the Circuit Court's ruling which is to that effect.
II.
On November 6, 1984, Eddie Meeks, Plaintiff below and Appellant here, was elected to the office of Elections Commissioner, District 5, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. Thereafter, Meeks was elected Chairman of the Tallahatchie County Elections Commission, a capacity in which he served until he tendered his letter of resignation as Commissioner effective June 1, 1987.
On May 14, 1987, Meeks formally qualified as a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the office of Justice Court Judge, Post 2, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. On that date Meeks filed his qualifying statement of intent with the Circuit Clerk of Tallahatchie County, Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 23-15-299 (Supp.1987), and paid the statutorily required filing fee. At this time, Meeks was still serving as Elections Commissioner as explained above, his resignation not being tendered until some seventeen days thereafter.
On June 14, 1987, the Tallahatchie County Democratic Party Executive Committee met to consider the matter of certification of candidates for the August 4, 1987, Democratic Party primary election. At that meeting, the Executive Committee refused to certify Meeks as a candidate, reasoning that he had been elected to act as Elections Commissioner and in fact had acted as Elections Commissioner with respect to the 1987 elections. See Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 23-15-217 (Supp.1987).
Meeks immediately brought suit in the Circuit Court of Tallahatchie County seeking an order directing that the Democratic Executive Committee place his name on the ballot as a candidate for Justice Court Judge. Upon expedited consideration and upon trial on the merits, the Circuit Court rendered a bench opinion followed by a final judgment denying Meeks relief. This appeal has followed.
III.
Meeks first assigns as error the alleged failure of the Tallahatchie County Democratic Executive Committee to afford him due process of law. His point is that, at least in his view, he was not afforded an adequate opportunity to present his views to the Democratic Executive Committee before certification was denied.
The record reflects that the Democratic Executive Committee met on June 14, 1987, without Meeks present and at that meeting the Committee did indeed vote to deny certification. While the Committee was still in session, Meeks received word of its action. He immediately went to the Committee meeting and at that time was allowed to present his views. The Committee did not reverse its decision. Thereafter, as indicated above, Meeks was afforded plenary hearing de novo on the merits in the Circuit Court. Significantly, nothing in the proceedings before the Circuit Court reflects any particular deference to the decision of the Democratic Executive Committee such as, for example, a refusal to disturb findings of fact unless clearly erroneous.
Without doubt, election to public office is a public function and any integral part of that function must be constitutional. The nomination process may appear to be more a private than a governmental function because it is conducted by political parties. Appearances notwithstanding, our law recognizes that the selection of party nominees by primary elections is an integral part of the entire election process. Fanning v. State, 497 So.2d 70, 72 (Miss.1986); Mississippi State Board of Election Commissioners v. Meredith, 301 So.2d 571, 573 (Miss.1974). In any event, we think it established Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence, however, that the primary election process is sufficiently state action that persons affected by it and participating in it have available due process protections. See generally Terry v. Adams, 345 U.S. 461, 73 S.Ct. 809, 97 L.Ed. 1152 (1953); Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649, 64 S.Ct. 757, 88 L.Ed. 987 (1944); United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941).
Without engaging in linguistic gymnastics regarding property rights, liberty interests and the like, we hold that when one files the proper qualifying papers and pays the requisite filing fee to become a candidate for public office, neither the state nor, in the case of a primary election, a political party may arbitrarily or capriciously deprive him or her of a place on the ballot. Eddie Meeks was entitled to due process protections on two levels. First, he was entitled to the opportunity to be heard. Second, he was entitled that his name not be finally stricken from the ballot except that result be required by law.
Due process in the purely procedural context contemplates advance notice and the opportunity to be heard. Mullane v. Central Hanover Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 316, 70 S.Ct. 652, 657, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950). Due process is a very flexible concept, however, and what process is due depends in substantial part upon the nature of the governmental function involved as well as the private interest affected by governmental action. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 560, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2976-77, 41 L.Ed.2d 935, 953 (1974). Political parties when performing public functions of the sort at issue here are entitled to operate with considerable informality. Where judicial review de novo is timely available, the constitution is more tolerant of such informality than might otherwise be the case. Cf. North v. Russell, 427 U.S. 328, 96 S.Ct. 2709, 49 L.Ed.2d 534 (1976).
Incident to the conduct of a party primary election, a political party's county executive committee is required, upon the expiration of the qualifying deadline, to review the papers of all who have offered as candidates for the party nomination and decide in each instance whether the individual is qualified to run for the office. No advance notice and opportunity to be heard is required before that meeting. Where the executive committee decides that a person is not eligible, however, and where that person wishes to be heard regarding the matter, the executive committee, as a matter of due process, is required to allow the disqualified candidate a reasonable opportunity to present his case.
True, the hearing afforded Meeks was somewhat unorthodox in the sense that Meeks informally got word that the Committee was meeting, had acted negatively upon his candidacy, and that he then went uninvited to the meeting. No matter. What is important--indeed, outcome determinative--is that Meeks appeared before the Committee and fully presented his views and his case. This process was described in the record of the trial below. At no point has Meeks indicated to us that, if he had had more advance notice and a greater opportunity to be heard, he could have presented additional or other information. He has failed to show to us that in any way he could have presented a better or more persuasive case on behalf of his candidacy had he been given greater advance notice and a more liberal opportunity to be heard. Any deficiency in the process he received is harmless.
Our view of Meeks' procedural due process claim is greatly reenforced by the opportunity for immediate judicial review which was available to Meeks and with respect to which he took full advantage. Meeks filed his complaint in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Tallahatchie County on June 30, 1987. He was afforded a de novo hearing on the merits on July 14, 1987. From that decision this Court granted Meeks an expedited appeal decision of which we announced August 3, 1987. The point for the moment is that the judicial machinery of this state moved with considerable alacrity to the end that Meeks' claims could be heard fully and resolved prior to the Democratic Party Primary Election held Tuesday, August 4, 1987. The aggregate process afforded Meeks by the state and the Democratic Party Executive Committee exceeds his minimum due.
IV.
Meeks claims a further violation of his due process rights. He argues that the Circuit Court erred in refusing to hold Section 23-15-217 unconstitutional as "void for vagueness." Section 23-15-217, in pertinent part, reads as follows:
A commissioner of election of any county shall not be a candidate for any office at any election for which he may have been elected or with reference to which he has acted as such; .... except that he may be a candidate for the office of county elections commissioner.
Meeks characterizes this statute as "inartfully drafted, vague and ambiguously worded." He argues that it is unavailable as a criteria for denying him a place on the ballot because it is unconstitutionally vague.
The contours of the void for vagueness doctrine are reasonably familiar. Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 46 S.Ct. 126, 70 L.Ed. 322 (1925) states:
[A] statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application violates the first essential of due process.
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