Sindicato Puertorriqueño De Trabajadores v. Fortuño

• Citation: 699 F.3d 1
• Decision Date: 19 October 2012
• Docket Number: No. 12–2171.,12–2171.
• Parties: SINDICATO PUERTORRIQUEÑO DE TRABAJADORES, SEIU Local 1996, Unión General de Trabajadores de Puerto Rico, SEIU Local 1199; Service Employees International Union; Alianza SEIU Puerto Rico, Inc., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Luis FORTUÑO, in his official capacity as Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; Public Service Commission of Puerto Rico; Laudelino F. Mulero Clas, in his official capacity as President of the Public Service Commission; Office of the Electoral Comptroller; Manuel A. Torres Nieves, in his official capacity as Electoral Comptroller, Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

699 F.3d 1

SINDICATO PUERTORRIQUEÑO DE TRABAJADORES, SEIU Local 1996, Unión General de Trabajadores de Puerto Rico, SEIU Local 1199; Service Employees International Union; Alianza SEIU Puerto Rico, Inc., Plaintiffs, Appellants,

v.Luis FORTUÑO, in his official capacity as Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; Public Service Commission of Puerto Rico; Laudelino F. Mulero Clas, in his official capacity as President of the Public Service Commission; Office of the Electoral Comptroller; Manuel A. Torres Nieves, in his official capacity as Electoral Comptroller, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 12–2171.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Oct. 11, 2012.

Decided Oct. 19, 2012.

Jeremiah A. Collins, with whom Mark Schneider, Alvin Velazquez, John M. West, Kimberly M. Sánchez Ocasio, Nora Vargas Acosta and Manuel A. Rodríguez Banchs were on brief, for appellants.

Claudio Aliff–Ortiz, with whom Eliezer Aldarondo–Ortiz, Michael C. McCall, and Eliezer A. Aldarondo–López were on brief, for appellees Public Service Commission of Puerto Rico, Luis G. Fortuño–Burset and Laudelino F. Mulero–Clas, and with whom Carlos Enrique Cardona–Fernández was on brief, for appellees Office of the Electoral Comptroller and Manuel Torres–Nieves.

Before TORRUELLA, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

In this appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction, plaintiff labor unions claim that Sections 6.007–.010 of Law 222, Puerto Rico's campaign finance law, place an unconstitutional burden on the unions' First Amendment right to engage in political speech. Despite the gravity of plaintiffs' claims and months of procedural wrangling, including two writs of mandamus from this court to the district court directing it to rule on plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunctive relief and the merits of their constitutional claims, both the district court and the government declined to address the merits of their claims. Indeed,we asked the Puerto Rico government three times at oral argument to defend the merits of the campaign finance provisions at issue, and each time the government declined to do so. In the absence of any such defense, and in light of the other factors relevant to the preliminary injunction analysis, we issued an appellate injunction on October 11, 2012, enjoining enforcement of the challenged provisions of Law 222 pending the final disposition of this appeal. We now resolve that appeal. In so doing, we explain more fully the reasons why we ordered the entry of the appellate injunction. We also set forth at the end of the opinion the preliminary injunction that we now direct the district court to enter.

I. Background

Prior to 2011, the rights of labor unions in Puerto Rico to make political expenditures or engage in electioneering were strictly limited by Section 4.7(c)(4) of the Puerto Rico Public Service Labor Relations Act, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 3, § 1451i(c)(4), also known as Law 45. Seeking to bring Puerto Rico's campaign finance law into compliance with the Supreme Court's landmark opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm'n., 558 U.S. 310, 130 S.Ct. 876, 175 L.Ed.2d 753 (2010), Puerto Rico enacted the “Puerto Rico Political Campaign Financing Oversight Act,” P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 16, also known as Law 222, on November 18, 2011.

Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of Sections 6.007–.010 of Law 222. These sections outline the procedures that juridical persons such as corporations and unions must follow if they wish to make either campaign contributions or independent expenditures.¹ Failure to comply with these procedures can result in significant financial penalties, including criminal penalties, for the juridical person and its officers. Because we deem this to be a facial challenge to an intricate statutory framework, we have included the full text of each of the challenged sections in an Appendix attached to this opinion.²

The plaintiffs in this case are three labor unions and one non-profit organization associated with the unions. Plaintiff unions Sindicato Puertorriqueño de Trabajadores (“SPT”) and Unión General de Trabajadores (“UGT”) together have more than 26,000 members in Puerto Rico. Both SPT and UGT are affiliates of the Service EmployeesInternational Union (“SEIU”), an international labor organization with over 2.1 million members. Alianza SEIU is a non-profit organization that provides educational and political support to organizations in Puerto Rico affiliated with SEIU.

Officers from both UGT and SPT testified at the preliminary injunction hearing that immediately after Law 222 was passed the two unions swiftly initiated plans to engage in political speech. On November 19, 2011—the day after Law 222 was signed into law—the unions jointly adopted a platform titled “Proposals for a Better Country” (“the Proposals”), which the unions' membership determined “should be implemented as a solution to the crisis that Puerto Rico is experiencing.” The district court described the Proposals as “proposals to improve the lives of their members and their families as well as the welfare of Puerto Rico through the topics of education, health and welfare, labor rights, sustainable development, democracy and citizen participation, and human rights.” ³

After adopting the Proposals, the unions submitted them to different members of the legislature and candidates for political office to see if they would be willing to support the Proposals. On March 30, 2012, UGT's Council of Delegates determined that if permitted by law, UGT would make expenditures on behalf of candidates in the November 6, 2012 general election who supported the Proposals. On June 15, 2012, the SPT Consultative Board adopted a similar resolution stating that if permitted by law, it would make expenditures on behalf of supportive candidates in the general election.

Officers from both unions testified that they had been cautioned by their attorneys that they would face serious risks of liability under Law 222 if they made any political expenditures related to the upcoming general election. Consequently, at the time the complaint in this case was filed, the unions had not yet engaged in any activities covered by Law 222, such as making political contributions or establishing a political action committee (“PAC”). However, according to testimony of SPT's president Roberto Pagán Rodríguez, SPT had already spent between $15,000 and $20,000 by late September 2012 promoting the Proposals themselves. Most of this money was spent holding meetings across Puerto Rico for union members to discuss the Proposals and printing information about the Proposals for the unions to use internally and at these meetings.

On July 3, 2012, the plaintiffs filed a complaint in the federal district court in Puerto Rico alleging that Sections 6.007, 6.009 and 6.010 of Law 222 restricted core political speech in violation of the First Amendment. On July 17, the plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction, seeking to enjoin enforcement of Section 4(c)(7) of Law 45 and of Sections 6.007 through 6.010 of Law 222 “insofar as those provisions violate the constitutional rights of the Unions to make contributions and expenditures in connection with elections to public office and referenda.” ⁴

Even though the November 6, 2012 general election was rapidly approaching, the district court moved slowly on plaintiffs' motion, and plaintiffs consequently petitioned this court twice for extraordinary relief. In the first instance, without conducting a hearing, the district court issued a sua sponte order on September 7, 2012 certifying the question of Law 222's constitutionality to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. Plaintiffs petitioned this court for relief. On September 17, we concluded that because the district court had certified only questions of federal constitutional law, certification to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court was inappropriate. Exercising our supervisory mandamus authority, we vacated the district court's certification order, directed the district court to rescind the certified questions, and ordered the district court to “promptly rule on [plaintiffs'] motion for preliminary injunctive relief.”

One week later, plaintiffs again petitioned this court for a writ of mandamus. This time, plaintiffs sought to vacate an order of the district court that, in effect, required plaintiffs to produce voluminous documents with only eighteen hours' notice. The district court had granted the defendants' discovery motion and stated that if plaintiffs failed to comply their claim would be dismissed with prejudice. On September 24, 2012, we granted plaintiffs' request for mandamus relief, concluding that “our prior order leaves no room for avoidance through procedural maneuvering designed to defeat a decision on the merits.” We vacated the district court's discovery order in part, and again ordered the district court to rule on the merits of plaintiffs' motion.

The day after our order issued, the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing. On September 27, 2012, the court issued an order denying plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction. Plaintiffs quickly appealed and filed a motion for an appellate injunction pending appeal. We set an expedited briefing schedule and heard oral arguments during a special session of this court on October 11, 2012. Within hours of hearing oral argument, we issued a brief order granting plaintiffs' motion for an appellate injunction enjoining enforcement of Sections 6.007–10 of Law 222 pending the disposition of this appeal.

II. The District Court's Opinion

In its Opinion & Order denying the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, the district court framed its analysis using the familiar four-part test for evaluating the propriety of issuing a preliminary injunction. Relying heavily on our opinion in Respect Maine PAC v. McKee, 622 F.3d 13 (1st Cir.2010), the district court concluded that the...