Opinion ID: 495033
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Standing Requirement: The Appellees' Case

Text: 32 As the Supreme Court indicated in Warth, standing in no way depends on the merits of the plaintiff's contention that particular conduct is illegal. 422 U.S. at 500, 95 S.Ct. at 2206; see also South E. Lake View Neighbors, 685 F.2d at 1034. However, the application of the principles governing the law of standing is hardly a mechanical exercise. Allen, 468 U.S. at 751, 104 S.Ct. at 3324. It is often appropriate and necessary to look to the substantive issues ... to determine whether there is a logical nexus between the status asserted and the claim sought to be adjudicated. Flast, 392 U.S. at 102, 88 S.Ct. at 1953; see also Warth, 422 U.S. at 500, 95 S.Ct. at 2206 (Although standing in no way depends on the merits of the plaintiff's contention that particular conduct is illegal, ... it often turns on the nature and source of the claim asserted.). Given the novelty of the case, this is no easy task. Although several other cases have considered aspects of the patronage system, none have focused solely on the impact of patronage hiring policies on candidates and voters. See, e.g., Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980) (discussing politically-motivated firing); Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976) (discussing politically-motivated firing); Avery v. Jennings, 786 F.2d 233 (6th Cir.) (analyzing the impact of patronage hiring practices on prospective employees), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 3276, 91 L.Ed.2d 566 (1986); McCormick v. Edwards, 646 F.2d 173 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981) (discussing firing resulting from political activity), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1165, 102 S.Ct. 1042, 71 L.Ed.2d 323 (1982); Illinois State Employees Union v. Lewis, 473 F.2d 561 (7th Cir.1972) (discussing politically-motivated firing), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 928, 93 S.Ct. 1364, 35 L.Ed.2d 590 (1973); Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 641 F.Supp. 249 (N.D.Ill.1986), appeal filed, No. 86-2073 (7th Cir. argued Apr. 7, 1987) (primarily discussing the impact of politically-motivated hiring practices on employees). 33 In a thoughtful opinion, the district court, operating without very much guidance from the earlier opinion of this court, 9 suggested that three separate constitutional interests were infringed by the defendants' hiring policy: first, the plaintiff candidates' rights of free political belief and expression, 481 F.Supp. at 1333; second, the plaintiff voters and candidates' right to associate, id. at 1333-34; and third, the plaintiff candidates and voters' right to equal participation in the electoral process, id. at 1334-35. In our view, however, the heart of the plaintiffs' case is their contention that the hiring practices of the defendants violate the speech and associational rights of candidates and voters. 10 As a general proposition, the right of candidates and voters to communicate freely is beyond question. It is also beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the 'liberty' assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech. NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449, 460, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 1171, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958). It is also well-established that the rights of voters and the rights of candidates do not lend themselves to neat separation; laws that affect candidates always have at least some theoretical, correlative effect on voters. Bullock v. Carter, 405 U.S. 134, 143, 92 S.Ct. 849, 856, 31 L.Ed.2d 92 (1972). However, the recitation of these broad principles--as important as they are--does not provide us with sufficient guidance to resolve the issue of standing before us. A far more focused inquiry is required to determine whether the asserted injury is fairly traceable to the defendants' activity. We must more precisely consider the character and magnitude of the asserted injury to the rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments that the plaintiff[s] seek[ ] to vindicate. Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780, 789, 103 S.Ct. 1564, 1570, 75 L.Ed.2d 547 (1983). 34 At the outset, it is important to note that the hiring practice at issue here is significantly different from the sort of activity that usually forms the basis of a challenge to an electoral system. Indeed, this case is not really a challenge to the mechanics of an electoral system at all. We are not asked to evaluate any aspect of the electoral process--the procedure to get on the ballot or to obtain a place on the ballot. There is no claim that any candidate was deprived of the opportunity to run for office, to appear on the ballot, or to be given any particular place on the ballot. Nor is there any claim that a voter was deprived of the opportunity to vote for a particular candidate. Rather, the gravamen of the appellees' complaint is that the announced hiring practice of the appellants provided a decided advantage in communicating with the electorate and in effectively marshalling community support for the appellants' political cause. 35 This is not, of course, a claim that the speech and associational rights of the appellees are completely restricted. Rather, it is a claim that the hiring practice had the purpose and effect of giving the appellants a significant advantage in the process of communicating with the electorate. There can be no doubt that unequal treatment of speech by government officials can amount to content regulation of that speech--regardless of whether the government has acted to impede affirmatively the speech of a particular speaker or to assist artificially the speech of another. See generally Police Dep't of the City of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 92 S.Ct. 2286, 33 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972). Here, government officials have not undertaken either of these roles in any direct manner. Rather, the appellees argue that the incumbents, by maintaining the practice of filling certain government positions with those who have supported them in the electoral process, have indirectly created such an inequality in the treatment of communication. Such a claim of an indirect injury must be scrutinized carefully. 36 When a governmental prohibition or restriction imposed on one party causes specific harm to a third party, harm that a constitutional provision or statute was intended to prevent, the indirectness of the injury does not necessarily deprive the person harmed of standing to vindicate his rights. E.g., Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 124, 93 S.Ct. 705, 712, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973). But it may make it substantially more difficult to meet the minimum requirement of Art. III: to establish that, in fact, the asserted injury was the consequence of the defendants' actions, or that prospective relief will remove the harm. 37 Warth, 422 U.S. at 505, 95 S.Ct. at 2208. 38