Opinion ID: 2365840
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The political thicket

Text: Maryland courts crossed the Rubicon in this matter in Valle v. Pressman, 229 Md. 591, 185 A.2d 368 (1962). In that instance the Democratic candidate for State's Attorney of Baltimore City died subsequent to the primary election and before the general election. Before the Court was the validity of the selection by the Democratic State Central Committee of Baltimore City of a person as the nominee for that party at the ensuing general election. This Court affirmed a determination that the selection made was not valid. As Judge Hammond put it for the Court, Each of the defendants demurred on the grounds that a court of equity had no power or right either to determine an election or political contest or to try title to office.... In the process of holding that the complainants had stated a cause of action of which equity had jurisdiction, he said for the Court: We think the demurrers were overruled properly. The general rule that a court of equity may not decide election contests or interfere in political controversies is not inflexible and lately has been considerably relaxed. See Maryland Committee for Fair Representation v. Tawes, 228 Md. 412, following Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 7 L.Ed.2d 663. Soper v. Jones, 171 Md. 643, held that a court of equity had jurisdiction of a taxpayer's suit to enjoin the Secretary of State from certifying the name of a candidate because of his failure to comply with statutory requirements as to signature. Chief Judge Bond referred to the general rule that equity will not decide election cases and said for the Court: `But a contention that no controversy that affects elections may be heard and decided by the Court would be at odds with other decisions,' and cited cases in equity in which jurisdiction had been entertained, such as Carr v. Hyattsville, 115 Md. 545 (a bill to invalidate a referendum election on a local act); Graf v. Hiser, 144 Md. 418 (a bill to declare a referendum election invalid as improperly held); and Sun Cab Co. v. Cloud, 162 Md. 419 (a bill to restrain the holding of a referendum election because the signatures seeking it did not meet constitutional requirements). Judge Bond went on to point out that in the Sun Cab case a distinction was drawn between `interferences by the courts with the political conduct of elections, and taking jurisdiction of a question whether persons assuming to avail themselves of the election machinery set up for private initiative are persons entitled under the law to do so.' In Hammond v. Love, 187 Md. 138, a mandamus case, this Court said that administrative or official decisions and actions in regard to the elective process which are arbitrary or contrary to law are subject to review by the courts. In Mayor & Town Council of Landover Hills v. Brandt, 199 Md. 105, 107, Judge Henderson for the Court restated earlier holdings that the statute which says the judges of the circuit courts and of the Superior Court of Baltimore City should decide contested elections in certain cases (now Code (1957), Art. 33, Sec. 145) does not confer jurisdiction in equity, and said: `Nor would equity have inherent jurisdiction in the absence of fraud, or arbitrary or illegal action.' The Court affirmed the chancellor's action in recounting the ballots because the case could have been removed from equity to law and heard before the same judge. Other cases involving matters pertaining to elections in which equity has acted and in which no question of its right to do so was raised include Wilkinson v. McGill, 192 Md. 387; Nutwell v. Supervisors of Election, 205 Md. 338 (bill to nullify action of a State Central Committee in certifying a nominee); Lexington Park, etc. v. Robidoux, 218 Md. 195. Id. at 594-96. The Court was again involved in the political thicket in Black v. Bd. of Supervisors, 232 Md. 74, 191 A.2d 580 (1963), although this time without a contest as to the right of the courts to be so involved. There the Republican candidate for City Comptroller of Baltimore City had resigned and the issue before the Court included, among other things, whether the vacancy might be filled with a registered Democrat even though he had been an unsuccessful candidate for that office in the preceding primary election. The holding in Valle disposes of the contention that the controversy here is not one cognizable by the courts.