Opinion ID: 770432
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Compelling interests and narrow tailoring.

Text: 25 Laws which place a substantial burden on First Amendment rights may still withstand heightened scrutiny if they are narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest. Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Comm., 489 U.S. 214, 225 (1989); Libertarian Party of Ill. v. Rednour, 108 F.3d 768, 773 (7th Cir. 1997). The question of whether the Board's asserted interests qualify as compelling is one of law; where the material facts are undisputed, the necessity of the chosen means also involves a question of law. We review both of these questions de novo. (WIN) Washington Initiative Now, 213 F.3d at1137; Citizens Concerned About Our Children v. School Bd. of Broward County, Fla., 193 F.3d 1285, 1292 (11th Cir. 1999) (per curiam); Peterson v. Minidoka County Sch. Dist. No. 331, 118 F.3d 1351, 1357, amended, 132 F.3d 1259 (9th Cir. 1997). We assess whether the state's interest is substantial by examining the specific facts of the case. California Democratic Party, 120 S. Ct. at 2413. In evaluating the breadth of the law, we must take into account the other mechanisms the State currently employs to serve the statute's purpose, as well as other, less restrictive means it could reasonably employ. Norman v. Reed, 502 U.S. 279, 293 (1992); Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431, 442 (1971); Ayres v. City of Chicago, 125 F.3d 1010, 1016 (7th Cir. 1997). The State need not use the least restrictive means available, as long as its present method does not burden more speech than is necessary to serve its compelling interests. Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 799 (1989); Anderson, 460 U.S. at 789; Ayres, 125 F.3d at 1016. 26 The Board asserts that three interests are served by 5/7-10. First, the law ensures that the candidates have a significant level of support in the community to merit ballot access so as to avoid confusion and deception. The Supreme Court has held that this is an important interest. Jenness, 403 U.S. at 442; see Libertarian Party of Ill., 108 F.3d at 775 (Illinois has an important interest in ensuring that a new political party has a modicum of support before placing its candidates on the ballot); Prestia v. O'Connor, 178 F.3d 86, 88 (2d Cir. 1999) (per curiam). The problem here is that the law is not narrowly tailored to serve this interest. In fact, the law appears unnecessary, as the signature quota--5,000 in the case of Krislov and about 660 in the case of Sullivan--already ensures that candidates have a minimum level of support. See Lubin, 415 U.S. at 717 (signature requirement for ballot access is the most common means of testing a candidate's level of support). As long as the required number of signatures are valid and they were obtained by an adult, what more is needed? The Board does not suggest any way in which its interests are not sufficiently served by the signature quota. Thus the necessity of 5/7-10's residency and registration requirements is dubious. 27 Furthermore, even if the Board's interest in assuring a threshold level of support were not served by other means, it is obvious that the fit between the end to be served by the statute and the means selected to achieve it is not particularly tight, as the provision potentially excludes candidates who have support among the electorate, or who might have support if they could get out their message. Laws which could prevent viable candidates from being elected are at odds with the very foundation of our representative democracy. Bullock, 405 U.S. at 143 (invalidating on equal protection grounds a primary election filing fee where many potential office seekers lacking both personal wealth and affluent backers are in every practical sense precluded from seeking the nomination of their chosen party, no matter how qualified they might be, and no matter how broad or enthusiastic their popular support). Section 7-10 suffers from this very defect. Under this provision, a candidate who has reasonable support in his district might be denied the possibility of being placed on the ballot simply because his supporters who are registered voters and who reside in the relevant political subdivision may not have the time or the energy to solicit signatures. Such a candidate will be kept from disseminating his message and might be denied ballot access despite potential support from the electorate. This is the rationale the Court used in Lubin v. Panish when it invalidated a California law that required candidates for primary elections to pay a filing fee of $701.60. 415 U.S. at 710. The Court dismissed the State's asserted justification--the need to ensure that candidates have support among the electorate--because filing fees do not, in and of themselves, test the genuineness of a candidacy or the extent of the voter support of an aspirant for public office. Id. at 717. Because the same is true of residency or registration requirements for petition circulators, section 7-10 also burdens much more speech than is necessary to serve its purpose. We therefore agree with the district court that this law is not narrowly tailored to serve the Board's goals. Ward, 491 U.S. at 799 (a statute cannot be narrowly tailored when it burdens substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government's legitimate interests). 28 The Board next asserts that, by requiring solicitors to reside in the same district in which the candidate is seeking office, the law makes it more likely that they will be aware of the boundaries of the district and will thus solicit only valid signatures. This interest is largely paternalistic, as its underlying premise is that the State needs to protect candidates because they aren't savvy enough to find solicitors who can read a street map, and thereby refrain from soliciting signatures in areas outside the relevant district. Of course, there is no per se bar to paternalistic laws, but they are highly suspect when they also burden speech. Eu, 489 U.S. at 223; Anderson, 460 U.S. at 798 (a law which restricts the flow of information primarily to serve paternalistic interests must be viewed with some skepticism); cf. 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S. 484, 507 (1996) (state cannot prohibit commercial speech in an effort to serve paternalistic purpose where the chosen means has not been shown to serve the state's goal). Although the desire to help candidates obtain valid signatures, and thereby promote political speech, is a legitimate state interest, it's not clear that this interest should be considered compelling or important. Furthermore, we doubt this law is essential or even well suited to the asserted interest. The Board offers nothing to suggest that this law is necessary, even though the residency and registration requirements were added to the law about 1979, giving the Board an opportunity to compare petitions from before and after the amendment to determine whether the law has decreased the number of invalid signatures. The Board also doesn't attempt to show that residents of a given congressional district know the boundaries of that district to an appreciably greater extent than non-residents. But even assuming that this is true, a much more narrow law--like one that required candidates to provide all circulators with a map showing the boundaries of the district--would be more effective. And as to Krislov, State boundaries are easily discernible and equally apparent to all circulators, regardless of whether they reside in Illinois or another State, which makes the necessity of this provision even more questionable. 29 The Board also claims that this provision will at least help ensure the integrity of the election process, which as a general proposition is certainly a compelling interest. Timmons, 520 U.S. at 358. It argues that the residency requirement might increase the probability that only valid signatures will be collected, thus ensuring that candidates will not obtain ballot access unless they have valid signatures. But a resident would likely be at the same risk of obtaining an invalid signature (e.g., the signer's registration had expired) as would a non-resident. Like the Supreme Court, we think that the dangers to the electoral system envisioned by the Board are particularly remote when simply gathering signatures, and thus this interest might not be so important at this early stage in the election process as to justify the burden imposed. Meyer, 486 U.S. at 427 (risks of deceit and fraud are more remote at the petition stage than at the time of balloting). Regardless, when the Government defends a regulation on speech as a means to . . . prevent anticipated harms, it must do more than simply posit the existence of the disease sought to be cured. Turner Broadcasting Sys., Inc. v. F.C.C., 512 U.S. 622, 664 (1994) (internal quotations omitted). It must show that the recited harms are real, not merely conjectural and that the regulation will in fact materially alleviate the anticipated harm. Id. The Board is unable to do this in light of the fact that the residency requirement is largely duplicative of its other requirements, and that circulators certify to the best of their knowledge that the signatures are valid. See 10 ILCS 5/10-4, 5/7-10. Furthermore, this interest is ultimately served by the Illinois process for challenging invalid signatures, which we discussed above. Importantly, the Board doesn't argue that its interest in obtaining valid signatures is greatly assisted by the residency restriction, or even that it is necessary to achieve this goal. Because the same ends can be achieved just as easily (and probably more effectively) through other means already in existence, the residency and registration requirements are unnecessary. And because those other means do not burden the candidate's speech and associational interests to the extent the residency and registration requirements do, the residency and registration requirements of section 7-10 cannot be described as narrowly tailored to serve these asserted interests. 30 The Board also contends that the law ensures that candidates have sufficient in-state support from the electorate. There seems to be three facets to this interest. First, the law ensures that candidates have a minimum of local support before they are placed on the ballot. We have already discussed this interest above, and regardless of how the argument is repackaged, the means chosen to serve this concern are not narrowly tailored. Second, the Board asserts an interest in allowing only Illinois voters to influence Illinois politics. If this means that the law is designed to ensure that only Illinois residents have a say in electing their representatives, nobody questions the legitimacy or weight of this interest. See Holt Civic Club v. City of Tuscaloosa, 439 U.S. 60, 68-69 (1978) (a government unit may legitimately restrict the right to participate in its political processes to those who reside in its borders). But this interest in selecting and electing a candidate is already adequately served by several other provisions. Specifically, three other provisions state that only Illinois voters may sign nominating petitions, vote in primary elections, and vote in the general election. See 10 ILCS 5/7-10 (nominating petitions); 10 ILCS 5/7-43 (primary elections); 10 ILCS 5/3-1 (general elections). Because only the signatures on the petition are counted, there is no apparent reason for the circulator to also be a registered voter residing in the district. This makes section 7-10 superfluous, and thus not narrowly tailored to serve this interest. 31 To the extent this law is designed to serve a third interest--preventing citizens of other States from having any influence on Illinois elections--we question its legitimacy. Such laws are harmful to the unity of our Nation because they penalize and discriminate against candidates who wish to associate with and utilize the speech of non-residents. Allowing citizens of the other forty-nine States to circulate petitions increases the opportunity for the free flow of political ideas. In some cases this might entail the introduction of ideas which are novel to a particular geographic area, or which are unpopular. But the First Amendment was designed to secure the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources and to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social change desired by the people. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. at 49 (internal punctuation omitted). This surely includes ideas from citizens of other States, and especially political ideas. Because circulating nominating petitions necessarily entails political speech, it follows that the First and Fourteenth Amendments compel States to allow their candidates to associate with non- residents for political purposes and to utilize non-residents to speak on their behalf in soliciting signatures for ballot access petitions. Cf. Warren v. Fairfax County, 196 F.3d 186, 190 (4th Cir. 1999) (en banc) (law which precludes non-residents from using public forum violates First Amendment); Vannatta v. Keisling, 151 F.3d 1215, 1218 (9th Cir. 1998) (law which prohibits candidates from accepting campaign contributions from anyone living outside the candidate's voting district violates the First Amendment); Whitmore v. FEC, 68 F.3d 1212, 1215 (9th Cir. 1995). Therefore, section 7/10 is not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest. It therefore violates the First Amendment rights of the candidates and its enforcement must be enjoined. 7