San Francisco County Democratic Cent. Committee v. March Fong Eu
| Decision Date | 18 June 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-1851,84-1851 |
| Citation | 792 F.2d 802 |
| Parties | SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE; San Francisco County Republican Central Committee; Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee; Alameda County Democratic Central Committee; Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee; Solano County Democratic Central Committee; Placer County Democratic Central Committee; State Central Committee of the Libertarian Party of California; Bert Coffey; Nancy Walker; Linda Post; Dolph Andrews; Carolyn Wallace; Mary King; Thomas Romero; Mary Gingell; David E. Sturrock; Walter Layson; Mary Vail; Roy Christman; James Fay; Northern California Committee For Party Renewal; Southern California Committee For Party Renewal; and National Committee For Party Renewal, Plaintiffs- Appellees, v. MARCH FONG EU, Secretary of State of the State of California, John Van De Kamp, Attorney General of the State of California; Arlo Smith, District Attorney of San Francisco County, et al., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
James J. Brosnahan, Cedric C. Chao, Paul R. Dieseth, Paul Flum, Morrison & Foerster, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Geoffrey L. Graybill, Deputy Atty. Gen., Sacramento, Cal., for defendants-appellants.
Appeal from the District Court for the Northern District of California.
Before WRIGHT, SKOPIL and NORRIS, Circuit Judges.
This case involves a First Amendment challenge to various sections of the California Elections Code. The challenged sections specify the membership of the state central committees of ballot-qualified political parties and the term of office of committee chairs, and prohibit both state and county central committees from endorsing candidates in party primaries.
Plaintiffs are various county central committees of the Democratic and Republican parties, the state central committee of the Libertarian party, members of these and other party central committees, and various other groups and individuals active in partisan politics in California. They sued the Secretary of State and Attorney General of California and the district attorneys of various counties (hereinafter, "the Secretary") for declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 seeking to vindicate their asserted First Amendment right to endorse candidates running in California's direct primary elections and to structure and conduct their internal affairs free of unjustified interference by the state. 1
In the first count of their first amended complaint, plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of Cal.Elec.Code Sec. 11702, which prohibits state and county central committees from endorsing, supporting, or opposing candidates for partisan office in direct primary elections. Plaintiffs' second count challenges sections of the Elections Code and the state constitution that prohibit central committees from endorsing candidates in nonpartisan county, city and school elections. Plaintiffs' third count challenges Code sections that prescribe the membership of state central committees, the term of office of state committee chairpersons, the time and place of state and county central committee meetings, and the dues to be paid by county committee members.
Plaintiffs moved for summary judgment on all three counts. In response, the Secretary moved to dismiss the amended complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and (6) and cross-moved for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment on plaintiffs' first count, ruling that section 11702's ban on preprimary endorsements violated the First Amendment. The court stayed all proceedings on plaintiffs' second count under the abstention doctrine of Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941). The court granted partial summary judgment on plaintiffs' third count, ruling that the sections prescribing the membership of state central committees and the term of their chairs violated the First Amendment. 2 The court, however, denied plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment with respect to those Code sections regulating the time and place of committee meetings and county committee dues. The court also denied in all respects the Secretary's motion to dismiss and cross-motion for summary judgment.
Although the district court did not finally dispose of all issues with respect to all parties, it directed the entry of final judgment for plaintiffs under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b) on the first count and as to those claims in the third count decided in plaintiffs' favor. 3 Accordingly, we have jurisdiction to hear the Secretary's appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291 (1982).
Plaintiffs contend that California's political parties and their governing bodies--the state and county central committees--are voluntary associations entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment. They argue that California's prohibition of preprimary endorsements and the state's regulation of party structure and internal affairs abridge their freedom of political expression and association. 4 In response, the Secretary argues that the state and county central committees of ballot-qualified political parties in California do not enjoy First Amendment status because they are public entities, not private associations. In the alternative, the Secretary argues that the challenged provisions of the Election Code pass First Amendment muster because they are narrowly drawn regulations that serve compelling state interests.
"Our form of government is built on the premise that every citizen shall have the right to engage in political expression and association." Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 250, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1212, 1 L.Ed.2d 1311 (1957). Because "[e]xercise of these basic freedoms ... has traditionally been through the media of political associations," id., political parties as well as individual party adherents enjoy First Amendment rights. See Democratic Party v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette, 450 U.S. 107, 101 S.Ct. 1010, 67 L.Ed.2d 82 (1981); Cousins v. Wigoda, 419 U.S. 477, 95 S.Ct. 541, 42 L.Ed.2d 595 (1975). 5 Moreover, "[a]ny interference with the freedom of a party is simultaneously an interference with the freedom of its adherents." Sweezy, 354 U.S. at 250, 77 S.Ct. at 1212; see Republican Party v. Tashjian, 770 F.2d 265, 278 (2nd Cir.1985), prob. juris noted, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 783, 88 L.Ed.2d 762 (1986). Finally, courts have "placed the internal workings of a political party squarely within the protection of the First Amendment." Ripon Society Inc. v. National Republican Party, 525 F.2d 567, 586 (D.C.Cir.1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 933, 96 S.Ct. 1148, 47 L.Ed.2d 341 (1976).
In this case we must apply these settled First Amendment principles to the restrictions imposed on California political parties by various provisions of the California Elections Code. To place the important constitutional questions presented by this appeal into perspective, we will first provide an overview of state regulation of political parties in California.
Like our national political parties, 6 California's political parties were originally unregulated voluntary associations of individuals "governed largely by custom and usage." Unger v. Superior Court, 37 Cal.3d 612, 615, 692 P.2d 238, 209 Cal.Rptr. 474 (1984) (Unger II ); see also 59 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 60 (1976); 23 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 119, 120 (1954) (citing Spelling v. Brown, 122 Cal. 277, 279, 55 P. 126 (1898)). These voluntary associations "fix[ed] membership criteria, nominat[ed] candidates for public office, conduct[ed] their campaigns, and shap[ed] their platforms" with neither recognition nor interference from the state. Friedman, Reflections Upon the Law of Political Parties, 44 Cal.L.Rev. 65, 66 (1956); see also Spier v. Baker, 120 Cal. 370, 380, 52 P. 659 (1898). Internal party decisions were generally made at party conventions where choices as important as "who shall represent [the] party on the election day ballot [were] left exclusively to a select group of its leaders." J. Owens, E. Costantini & L. Weschler, California Politics and Parties 78 (1970) [hereinafter, "California Politics "]. At the turn of the century, Progressive Republicans, led by Hiram Johnson, set out to replace this prevailing laissez-faire regime with one ostensibly designed to democratize and purify the parties by rescuing them from the stranglehold of wealthy special interests. 7 See Assembly Interim Committee on Elections and Reapportionment, Report on Political Party Organization 7, reprinted in 1 Appendix to Journal of the Assembly (1963).
Spurred on by the Progressive reformers, the state legislature took the first--and most fundamental--step toward democratizing political parties by enacting a direct primary law, which transferred the power to nominate candidates from party organizations to the voters themselves. See Hart v. Jordan, 168 Cal. 321, 143 P. 537 (1914); Katz v. Fitzgerald, 152 Cal. 433, 93 P. 112 (1907); see also California Politics, supra at 35. As part of the same reform movement (see Opinion, Legislative Counsel of California, February 23, 1978, Excerpt of Record 465), the California legislature required political parties to form state and county central committees and adopted rules for party governance. 8
The Elections Code provisions regulating party governance are byzantine in their complexity 9 and vary in extent and detail from party to party. See, e.g., Cal.Elec.Code Secs. 8500--8945 (Democratic Party), 9000--9510 (Republican Party), 9600--9745 (American Independent Party), 9750--9855 (Peace and Freedom Party). To take the Democratic party as an illustration, the Code establishes party central committees at the county, id. Sec. 8820, and state-wide levels, id. Sec. 8660; it dictates the size,...
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San Francisco County Democratic Cent. Committee v. Eu
......Renewal; and National Committee for Party Renewal, . Plaintiffs- Appellees, . v. . March Fong EU, Secretary of the State of California, John . Van De Kamp, Attorney General of the State of California; . Arlo Smith, District Attorney of ......
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