Rogers v. Corbett
| Decision Date | 03 November 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 06-2241.,06-2241. |
| Citation | 468 F.3d 188 |
| Parties | Marakay J. ROGERS, Esquire, Candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania; the Green Party of Pennsylvania, c/o Paul Teese, Chair; the Constitution Party of Pennsylvania; Ken V. Krawchuk; Hagan Smith, Appellants. v. Thomas W. CORBETT, Jr., Attorney General of Pennsylvania; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, c/o Office of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania; Governor Edward G. Rendell; Pedro A. Cortes, Secretary of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Samuel C. Stretton, Esquire (Argued), West Chester, PA, for Appellants.
Thomas W. Corbett, Jr., Esquire, Attorney General, Howard G. Hopkirk, Esquire (Argued), Senior Deputy Attorney General, John G. Knorr, III, Esquire, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Chief, Appellate Litigation Section, Office of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA, for for Appellees.
Before SMITH, ALDISERT, and ROTH, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs, a group of minor political parties and minor party nominees for state-wide office,1 challenged the constitutionality of Section 2911 of the Pennsylvania election code, 25 PA. STAT. § 2911(b), as applied to minor political parties and their candidates. They moved for a preliminary injunction against Pedro A. Cortes, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The District Court denied the motion and plaintiffs appealed. For the reasons stated below, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.
Under Pennsylvania law, a political body is qualified as a political party when one of its candidates obtains a 2% level of support in the preceding general election. Specifically, 25 PA. STAT. § 2831(a) defines a political party as:
Any party or political body, one of whose candidates at the general election next preceding the primary polled in each of at least ten counties of the State not less than two per centum of the largest entire vote cast in each of said counties for any elected candidate, and polled a total vote in the State equal to at least two per centum of the largest entire vote cast in the State for any elected candidate, is hereby declared to be a political party within the State.
Pennsylvania law further distinguishes between political parties (a/k/a/ major political parties) and minor political parties. Minor political parties are political parties with registered membership of less than 15% of the state-wide registration for all political parties.2
Political parties, i.e., at present the Republican and Democrat parties, place their candidates on the general election ballot via a primary system. 25 PA. STAT. § 2862. To appear on the ballot for the primary election, the Republican and Democrat candidates must get a prescribed number of signatures from individuals who are members of their respective parties. For example, a candidate for Governor must obtain 2,000 signatures. The winner of a plurality of votes in the primary is placed on the general election ballot as the candidate of his or her respective party.
Minor political parties, as well as political bodies not recognized as parties, place their candidates, and independent candidates place their names, on the general election ballot by nomination petitions. 25 PA. STAT. §§ 2872.2, 2911. To be placed on the general election ballot by a nomination petition, the candidate must obtain the signatures of a prescribed number of registered voters (regardless of party). The number of signatures must be equal to 2% of the vote total of the candidate who obtained the highest number of votes for state-wide office in the previous election.3
Candidates have approximately five months to circulate nomination petitions. For the November 2006 general election, petitions can be circulated from March 8, 2006, until August 1, 2006. A signatory must be a qualified elector of Pennsylvania who has registered to vote either on or before the day he signs the nomination petition. A signatory need not be a member of a political party. A signatory may sign a minor party candidate's nomination petition even if he has signed a nomination petition in support of a Republican or Democrat or voted in a major party primary, but a signatory may sign a nomination petition in support of only one candidate for each office for which there is a vacancy.
Unfortunately for minor political parties, political bodies and independent candidates, Bob Casey, Jr., soundly defeated his challenger for State Treasurer in 2004 in the biggest voter turnout in Pennsylvania history. Consequently, the "largest entire vote cast for any elected candidate in the State at large" is larger this cycle than in previous election years, based on Casey's high total. As such, 2% of that total, the number of required signatures, is 67,070, compared to previous years in which the number generally ranged between 30,000 and 50,000.4
Plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality, as applied to minor political parties, of the 2% variable threshold requirement of § 2911(b) for a candidate to be placed on the general election ballot. The feature which distinguishes plaintiffs' argument from previous attacks on § 2911(b) is that plaintiffs are challenging the combination of § 2831(a)'s 2% precondition to qualify as a political party and § 2911(b)'s 2% signature requirement that a minor political party must obtain in order for its candidates to be placed on the general election ballot. Plaintiffs contend that, having shown the 2% voter support in the previous election, they have shown their necessary "modicum" of support and should not have to petition to place candidates on the ballot.
Plaintiffs brought an action for declaratory and injunctive relief pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on the grounds that § 2911(b) violates both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the minor political parties' right of freedom of association under the First Amendment. For relief, plaintiffs have asked the District Court to enter an order allowing their parties' nominees to be placed on the general election ballot if they obtain the same number of signatures that candidates for the Republican and Democrat parties need to be placed on the primary ballot. Alternatively, plaintiffs have proposed other schemes to allow minor political party candidates to be placed on the general election ballot after demonstrating a lesser level of support. Plaintiffs also urge that minor political parties ought not to be subject to any signature requirement in light of the fact that they have already qualified as a political party.
The parties jointly stipulated to the applicable facts. On April 5, 2006, the District Court denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction on the ground that § 2911(b) was constitutional. At the same time, the District Court strongly urged the Pennsylvania General Assembly to reconsider the 2% threshold in light of the 67,070 signatures needed this cycle. This timely and expedited appeal followed.
The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1) ().
Ordinarily, we use a three-part standard to review a District Court's decision to grant or deny a preliminary injunction. Child Evangelism Fellowship of New Jersey, Inc. v. Stafford Twp. Sch. Dist., 386 F.3d 514, 524 (3d Cir.2004). The District Court's findings of fact are reviewed for clear error, the District Court's conclusions of law are evaluated under a plenary standard, and the ultimate decision to grant the preliminary injunction is reviewed for abuse of discretion.5 Id.
Id. (quoting Kos Pharms., Inc. v. Andrx Corp., 369 F.3d 700 (3d Cir.2004)). Generally, a panel entertaining a preliminary injunction appeal decides only whether the district court abused its discretion in ruling on the request for relief and does not go into the merits any further than necessary to determine whether the moving party established a likelihood of success. Id. Here, however, we are not required to take this narrow approach because the appeal from the denial of the preliminary injunction presents a question of law; the facts are either established or of no controlling relevance. Id. In such a case, we may decide the merits of the claim. Id.
In denying plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction, the District Court found that § 2911(b) did not impose a severe burden upon the plaintiffs' constitutional rights. Consequently, the court applied the familiar rational basis test to the statute to determine its constitutionality. As to the burden to minor political parties, the District Court noted that the 2% threshold of actual votes cast for a candidate was lower than the 5% threshold of eligible voters upheld after rational basis review by the Supreme Court in Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431, 91 S.Ct. 1970, 29 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971). Also, the District Court observed that minor political parties may obtain the needed signatures from the entire population of registered voters in Pennsylvania...
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