MINNESOTA FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DIST. v. State
| Decision Date | 08 August 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 50531.,50531. |
| Citation | 295 NW 2d 650 |
| Parties | MINNESOTA FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT INDEPENDENT-REPUBLICAN PARTY et al., Respondents, v. STATE of Minnesota ex rel. Warren SPANNAUS, Attorney General, Appellant, and City of Minneapolis ex rel. Lyall A. Schwarzkopf, City Clerk, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., Richard Allyn, Sol. Gen., LeRoy C. Paddock, and D. Douglas Blanke, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., St. Paul, for appellant.
Popham, Haik, Schnobrich, Kaufman & Doty and Bruce D. Willis, Minneapolis, for Minnesota Fifth Congressional District Independent-Republican Party, et al.
Robert J. Alfton, City Atty., and Larry F. Cooperman, Asst. City Atty., Minneapolis, for City of Minneapolis ex rel. Schwarzkopf.
Michael H. Burns, MCLU Volunteer Atty., Linda Ojala, MCLU Legal Counsel, Minneapolis, for amicus curiae.
Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.
The question for our decision is whether Minn.Stat. § 202A.22, subd. 1(m) (1978), which requires that any candidate filing for a partisan municipal office as an "Independent" state in his affidavit of candidacy "that he did not seek, does not intend to seek, and will not accept any party's support for his candidacy," violates First Amendment rights of political association and expression. We hold that it does and affirm the order of the Hennepin County District Court declaring Minn.Stat. § 202A.22, subd. 1(m) (1978) unconstitutional and permanently enjoining its enforcement.
Plaintiff Minnesota Fifth Congressional District Committee (hereinafter, "Committee") is an authorized district committee of the Independent-Republican Party, a "political party" within the meaning of Minn. Stat. § 202A.22, subd. 1(m) (1978).1 The Committee has, in previous Minneapolis City Council elections, supported the candidacies of persons filing as independents in certain wards. That support has taken the form of party endorsements, cash contributions, circulation of sample ballots, organization of party volunteers to distribute campaign literature, mailings to party precinct delegates in a given ward, and providing a mailing list of known party members in a given ward. Plaintiffs, the Committee and its chairman, Edward B. White, Jr., argue that by requiring an independent candidate to make assurances "that he did not seek, does not intend to seek and will not accept any party's support for his candidacy," the State renders support of this kind illegal, and unjustly and unconstitutionally burdens freedoms of association and expression. Appellant State of Minnesota recognizes the restriction which the statute places on political association but argues that it has a compelling interest in assuring voters in a municipal election that candidates who run as "Independents" are truly independent of political parties.
The issue is of great importance. Freedom to engage in effective political expression, in untrammeled discussion and debate, is at the heart of the rights protected by the First Amendment. See Mills v. Alabama, 384 U.S. 214, 86 S.Ct. 1434, 16 L.Ed.2d 484 (1966). As the United States Supreme Court recognized in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976):
The concept that government may restrict the speech of some elements of our society in order to enhance the relative voice of others is wholly foreign to the First Amendment, which was designed "to secure `the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources,\'" and "`to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people.\'"
424 U.S. at 48-49, 96 S.Ct. at 649, quoting New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 266, 269, 84 S.Ct. 710, 718, 720, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964). See Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1, 20, 65 S.Ct. 1416, 1424, 89 L.Ed. 2013 (1945); Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 484, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1308, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957).
The Constitution protects political association as well as individual political expression. One of those precious associational freedoms is the right of "like-minded persons to pool their resources in furtherance of common political goals." Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. at 15, 22, 96 S.Ct. at 636. Political parties enjoy a constitutionally protected right of association, and any interference with that right is an interference with the rights of the party's adherents. Cousins v. Wigoda, 419 U.S. 477, 487, 95 S.Ct. 541, 547, 42 L.Ed.2d 595 (1975). Any restriction on either of these dual rights — "the right of individuals to associate for the advancement of political beliefs, and the right of qualified voters, regardless of their political persuasion, to cast their votes effectively," Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 30, 89 S.Ct. 5, 10, 21 L.Ed.2d 24 (1968) — must be subject to strict judicial scrutiny. The court in MacBride v. Exon, 558 F.2d 443 (8th Cir. 1977), striking down a statute which required that, before a party candidate could have his name placed on the ballot, his party had to be organized and registered several months before the general election, observed:
The state has a right to protect its ballot from unreasonable congestion, voter confusion, and fraudulent or frivolous candidacies. On the other hand, it must be recognized that the power of a state to restrict the right of qualified electors to vote for candidates of their choice and the right of candidates, including independent candidates, to run for office is severely circumscribed by the Constitution. Restrictive measures are constitutionally suspect, and if they are to pass constitutional muster, they must be reasonable and must be justified by reference to a compelling state interest. The measures adopted by a state may not go beyond what the state\'s compelling interests actually require, and broad and stringent restrictions or requirements cannot stand where more moderate ones would do as well.
We must determine first whether the challenged statute is justified in reference to a compelling state interest. There is no doubt that the independence of "Independent" candidates is a legitimate matter of state concern. Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724, 94 S.Ct. 1274, 39 L.Ed.2d 714 (1974). In Storer, plaintiffs, who sought ballot positions as independent candidates for federal offices, challenged a California statute which forbade a ballot position as an Independent to any candidate who had a registered affiliation with a political party within one year prior to the preceding primary election. The Supreme Court upheld the challenged "disaffiliation provision," because it furthered the state's compelling interest "in the stability of its political system." 415 U.S. at 736, 94 S.Ct. at 1282. The court noted that the provision would have the effect of preventing defeated party primary candidates from "continuing the struggle"; would "work against independent candidacies prompted by short-range political goals, pique, or personal quarrel"; and would pose "a substantial barrier to a party fielding an `independent' candidate to capture and bleed off votes in the general election that might well go to another party" — all presumably legitimate goals. Id. at 735, 94 S.Ct. at 1282.
The thrust of the court's reasoning in upholding the disaffiliation provision, however, was that it "involves no discrimination against independents." Id. at 733, 94 S.Ct. at 1281. Under the California provisions, a party candidate was required to demonstrate that he had not been registered with another party for an even longer period of time than an independent candidate was required to demonstrate his disaffiliation. It was significant for the Storer court that the requirement posed no greater burdens on independent candidates than on party candidates.
While approving the disaffiliation requirement, however, the court in Storer remanded the case for factual findings on the question of whether certain other provisions operated to make running as an independent candidate unduly burdensome. In Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 89 S.Ct. 5, 21 L.Ed.2d 24 (1968), the court had struck down an Ohio statutory scheme which made no provision at all for independent candidates to have their names placed on the ballots. Reaffirming that holding, the Storer court concluded: "We perceive no sufficient state interest in conditioning ballot position for an independent candidate on his forming a new political party as long as the State is free to assure itself that the candidate is a serious contender, truly independent, and with a satisfactory level of community support." 415 U.S. at 746, 94 S.Ct. at 1287. (Emphasis supplied.)
The State does indeed have a compelling interest in ensuring that candidates who run for election as "Independents" are truly independent, an interest recognized by other courts addressing the issue since Storer. Mississippi State Board of Election Commissioners v. Meredith, 301 So.2d 571 (Miss.1974); McInerney v. Wrightson, 421 F.Supp. 726 (D.Del.1976); Maddox v. Wrightson, 421 F.Supp. 1249 (D.Del.1976); MacBride v. Askew, 541 F.2d 465 (5th Cir. 1976).
Our analysis next requires us to consider whether the challenged restriction goes beyond what the State's compelling interest actually requires. See MacBride v. Exon, 558 F.2d 443, 448 (8th Cir. 1977). Because the statute considered here burdens the exercise of fundamental rights to associate for political purposes, it is invalid unless it actually serves the State's compelling interest and acts in the least drastic way to accomplish that purpose. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 25, 96 S.Ct. 612, 637, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976); Lubin v. Panish, 415 U.S. 709, 94 S.Ct. 1315, 39 L.Ed.2d 702 (1974); Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 488, 81 S.Ct. 247, 252, 5 L.Ed.2d 231 (1960). See McCarthy v. Austin, 423 F.Supp. 990, 997 (W.D.Mich.1976).
Plaintiffs argue that the restriction here does not...
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