Opinion ID: 1182371
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: initiative section 24 (rcw 42.17.240)

Text: In the Simmons case, arguments of respondents against Initiative 276 focus primarily upon the constitutionality of section 24 which is set out in full in the footnote herein. [2] Respondent's contentions that section 24 is unconstitutional are essentially as follows: (1) the section infringes upon a fundamental right of privacy; (2) the section is impermissibly overbroad; (3) the section impinges upon a candidate's right to seek and hold office, and (4) the right of the electorate to vote for the candidate of its choice. The bold thrust of Initiative 276 in mandating disclosure of the financial affairs of elected officials appears to be unprecedented in either state or federal legislation. In an ideal sense, public disclosure legislation should not totally disregard the right of privacy of candidates for office and incumbent elected public officials whose compliance is required by such legislation. Furthermore, in the abstract, there should be an optimum balance between the rights of such candidates and elected officials and the right of the public to know or to be informed about those who govern in their behalf. In its declaration of policy, Initiative 276 notes as its goal the achievement of such a balance. See section 1 (10)-(11), RCW 42.17.010 (10)-(11). Some ambivalence, line drawing or balancing as to conflicting values and opposing interests usually can be tolerated or subsumed with some case and grace in the realm of the abstract or the purely philosophical. But the task is a most sensitive, difficult, and at times a well nigh impossible one, in the day-to-day  at times  do or die world of practical, political, and social realities. For reasons indicated hereinafter, we have some doubts as to whether the difficult task of judicial line drawing or balancing is required as to any conflicting values and opposing interests involved in section 24. If some judicial line drawing or balancing must be done, we are convinced it must be done in the direction or in support of the interests of the people and the electorate regarding the purport of section 24. Considering today's political and social realities and the purport of section 24, we are convinced the sum of these circumstances show very clearly a legitimate or perhaps even a compelling state or societal interest of the people and the electorate in enacting Initiative 276, including section 24 thereof. [5] The right of privacy, as with other rights, is not an absolute. There are inherent limitations of a unique and significant nature regarding any claim to the right of privacy on the part of candidates and incumbent public officials. It seems almost too obvious for argument that the candidate who enters the public arena voluntarily presents or thrusts himself forth as a subject of public interest and scrutiny. While there are many intimate details which may be beyond the scope of legitimate public interest, information which clearly and directly bears upon the qualifications and the fitness of those who seek and hold public office is unquestionably in the public domain. First amendment freedom of the press has been dramatically construed to encourage and protect public discourse regarding the conduct of public officials. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 11 L.Ed.2d 686, 84 S.Ct. 710, 95 A.L.R.2d 1412 (1964), the Supreme Court of the United States quoted with approval the language of Sweeney v. Patterson, 128 F.2d 457 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 317 U.S. 678 (1942), in which the circuit court had approved the dismissal of a congressman's libel suit against a newspaper, Cases which impose liability for erroneous reports of the political conduct of officials reflect the obsolete doctrine that the governed must not criticize their governors.... The interest of the public here outweighs the interest of appellant or any other individual. The protection of the public requires not merely discussion, but information. (Italics ours.) New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra at 272. In Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 41-42, 29 L.Ed.2d 296, 91 S.Ct. 1811 (1971), the court further elucidated the fundamental nature of the public's right to know: Self-governance in the United States presupposes far more than knowledge and debate about the strictly official activities of various levels of government. The commitment of the country to the institution of private property, protected by the Due Process and Just Compensation Clauses in the Constitution, places in private hands vast areas of economic and social power that vitally affect the nature and quality of life in the Nation. Our efforts to live and work together in a free society not completely dominated by governmental regulation necessarily encompass far more than politics in a narrow sense.... Freedom of discussion, if it would fulfill its historic function in this nation, must embrace all issues about which information is needed or appropriate to enable the members of society to cope with the exigencies of their period. Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 102 (1940). ... [L]ater decisions have disclosed the artificiality, in terms of the public's interest, of a simple distinction between public and private individuals or institutions: Increasing in this country, the distinctions between governmental and private sectors are blurred.... In many situations, policy determinations which, traditionally were channeled through formal political institutions are now originated and implemented through a complex array of boards, committees, commissions, corporations, and associations, some only loosely connected with the Government. This blending of positions and power has also occurred in the case of individuals so that many who do not hold public office at the moment are nevertheless intimately involved in the resolution of important public questions.... ... Our citizenry has a legitimate and substantial interest in the conduct of such persons, and freedom of the press to engage in uninhibited debate about their involvement in public issues and events is as crucial as it is in the case of `public officials.' Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 163-164 (1967) (Warren, C.J., concurring in result). The crux of evaluating the capabilities and motivations of any candidate for public office or incumbent public official is information bearing upon fitness for office. We need not fear that any candidate or official may not apprise the electorate of his capabilities. Opponents, of course, will emphasize any lack of ability. Nonetheless, other factors that may influence the electorate's evaluative processes are not always disclosed in the heat of a campaign and less often when the official has taken office. [6] We accept as self-evident the suggestion in the brief of intervenors (The League of Women Voters) that the right to receive information is the fundamental counterpart of the right of free speech. The broad protections accorded the speech of public officials, Bond v. Floyd, 385 U.S. 116, 17 L.Ed.2d 235, 87 S.Ct. 339 (1966), and the criticism of such speech, Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 13 L.Ed.2d 125, 85 S.Ct. 209 (1964), are essential to ensure that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open ... New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra at 270. The constitutional safeguards which shield and protect the communicator, perhaps more importantly also assure the public the right to receive information in an open society. Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374, 17 L.Ed.2d 456, 87 S.Ct. 534 (1967). Freedom of speech without the corollary  freedom to receive  would seriously discount the intendment, purpose and effect of the First Amendment. [3] Initiative 276 seeks to enlarge the information base upon which the electorate makes its decisions. The right of the electorate to know most certainly is no less fundamental than the right of privacy. When the right of the people to be informed does not intrude upon intimate personal matters which are unrelated to fitness for public office, see Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 14 L.Ed.2d 510, 85 S.Ct. 1678 (1965), the candidate or officeholder may not complain that his own privacy is paramount to the interests of the people. Discernment between the ambit of private and personal affairs is not an easy task. As stated in Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 77, 13 L.Ed.2d 125, 85 S.Ct. 209 (1964): [A]ny criticism of the manner in which a public official performs his duties will tend to affect his private, as well as his public, reputation. The New York Times rule is not rendered inapplicable merely because an official's private reputation, as well as his public reputation, is harmed. The public-official rule protects the paramount public interest in a free flow of information to the people concerning public officials, their servants. To this end, anything which might touch on an official's fitness for office is relevant. Few personal attributes are more germane to fitness for office than dishonesty, malfeasance, or improper motivation, even though these characteristics may also affect the official's private character. The scope of public interest and the public's right to know was further emphasized in Monitor Patriot v. Roy, 401 U.S. 265, 274, 28 L.Ed.2d 35, 91 S.Ct. 621 (1971), when the court stated: The principal activity of a candidate in our political system, his office, so to speak, consists in putting before the voters every conceivable aspect of his public and private life that he thinks may lead the electorate to gain a good impression of him. A candidate who, for example, seeks to further his cause through the prominent display of his wife and children can hardly argue that his qualities as a husband or father remain of purely private concern. And the candidate who vaunts his spotless record and sterling integrity cannot convincingly cry Foul! when an opponent or an industrious reporter attempts to demonstrate the contrary. The provisions of section 24 do not sweep so broadly as to be constitutionally impermissible. Section 24 does not cavalierly mandate a picayune itemization of personal affairs, but requires only the listing of financial data and relationships with amounts to be designated, not in specific amounts, but by general categories of varying monetary degree. See section 24, supra. Further, we note that should the requirements of section 24 impose undue hardship upon any individual, the Public Disclosure Commission is empowered to grant a waiver. See section 37 (9), RCW 42.17.370 (9). The supreme courts of California and Illinois have passed upon the constitutionality of public disclosure measures in those states; but, the unique nature, breadth and complexity of Initiative 276 discounts the precedential value of those decisions in some considerable degree. In Carmel-by-the -Sea v. Young, 2 Cal.3d 259, 466 P.2d 225, 85 Cal. Rptr. 1 (1970), a public disclosure enactment was struck down as unconstitutional. Among other distinguishing features, the California case involved a state statute which compelled extensive disclosure by nonelected state employees. Thus, civil servants who had not taken the volitional step of entering the elective process were to be subjected to scrutiny equal to that of elected officials. The California court emphasized and held that this intrusion into the lives of public employees was an unwarranted and unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The Illinois Supreme Court in Stein v. Howlett, 52 Ill.2d 570, 289 N.E.2d 409 (1972), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 925 (1973), distinguished Carmel by interpreting a newly enacted Illinois government ethics act upon the basis of a unique provision in the 1970 Illinois constitution. The Illinois court reasoned that this constitutional provision, which ordered disclosure of economic data by all candidates and officeholders, was clear evidence of a recent popular mandate favoring disclosure, and constituted authority to sustain the Illinois disclosure legislation. [7] The salient precedential value of the Stein decision was the court's refusal to find the provisions of the Illinois statute either (1) an unwarranted intrusion into the privacy of candidates or public officeholders, or (2) an impermissible infringement upon the right to seek office or to vote for the candidate of one's choice. With regard to the ambit of section 24 of Initiative 276, we subscribe to the rationale and holding of the Illinois Supreme Court. The respondents argue that section 24 suffers from unconstitutional overbreadth. Obviously, the extensive reporting required by section 24 may result in disclosures of information not unequivocally related to the public office in question. Respondents assert the initiative does not sufficiently relate required disclosure to the nature of the office. It would be, however, an insurmountable legislative task to tailor disclosures to each of literally a myriad of public posts, and an anomaly to require each individual to make a personal determination as to what items of his financial affairs would be relevant. The all-inclusive, generic terms of section 24 are not irrationally unrelated to the legitimate purpose they are to achieve. We, therefore, decline the invitation to find the section unconstitutionally overbroad. Accord, Stein v. Howlett, supra . Our holding that section 24 is not repugnant to the right of privacy or other constitutional rights of public officials, does not signify we would personally endorse the philosophy or the mechanics of that section if other alternatives were offered. It may well be that application and enforcement of the section will have negative, as well as affirmative social results. In any event, it is not for this court to substitute its judgment in matters of social or political policy for those of the people and the society it serves. Respondents earnestly warn of statewide wholesale resignations by dedicated, scrupulously honest, competent public officials if section 24 is upheld. In examining the extensive disclosure requirements of the section, we note the requirement of exhaustive, burdensome reporting that may befall some individuals. Section 24 may impose an extraordinary impact upon those who are engaged both in the public service and in private business or the professions, and whose associates and immediate family members are subject to disclosure. As heretofore mentioned, the partners, business associates and spouses of public officials may refuse to make the necessary disclosures. Faced with this dilemma as to extensive disclosure of financial affairs in order to continue in office, an unpredictable number of elected officials may resign and forego public service. Thus, again as mentioned heretofore, section 24 may foreclose the candidacy or continued office holding of well qualified citizens of impeccable integrity. It would indeed be sadly ironic if the laudable purposes of Initiative 276 were to precipitate significant or widespread resignations from public office of many outstanding, honest and competent officials. Irrespective of how ill advised we or others may think some portions of section 24 may be, it is within the power of the people to prescribe informational standards or disclosure qualifications relative to public office. In this regard, we noted that the waiver of compliance authorized by section 37(9), RCW 42.17.370(9), may provide a safety valve to ensure that inequities do not frustrate the purpose of the measure. It is to be hoped that some of the fears expressed by respondents are unwarranted. If not, constitutional amendment 26 provides the mechanism to remedy undesirable social results which may flow from application and enforcement of section 24 or other provisions of Initiative 276. In fact, at the coming January 1974 session, the legislature may modify or change any demonstrably unworkable, undesirable, or offensive provisions by a two-thirds vote of each house. Furthermore, after the initiative has been on the books for 2 years it may be changed by a simple majority vote of each house. In addition, the people could again resort to the initiative process as they deem it necessary to alter and improve upon the provisions of Initiative 276 as their legislative product.