Opinion ID: 1972212
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Private Organizations

Text: Norma Randolph is involved in two private organizations: the United Progressive Homeowners and Taxpayers Association, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. When we view these activities, we must keep in mind the contrasts between membership in committees of other branches of government and private associational activity. In the former context, in striking the appropriate constitutional balance we place on one side of the scales of justice this Court's right and duty to preserve the independence of the judiciary, and on the other side the employee's fundamental right to free speech and association. We recognize the difference between someone who is close to the decision-making process, such as a judge or a law clerk, and someone who may perform similarly important functions but is not close to that process, such as a court aide. The fact that a court aide is employed by the county sheriff rather than the judiciary should be weighed with the fact that the aide works in and around the courtroom. The difference between partisan and non-partisan political office and the further distinction between appointed positions that are close to the heart of government and those that are more remote should also be considered. Appointment to any public office poses a greater likelihood of impermissible judicial involvement in other levels of government and the political process. For this reason we agree with the conclusion below that Mrs. Randolph may not continue in her public positions. She argues that her service as an officer of a local chapter of the NAACP and of a homeowners' association does not pose an equal threat to the independence of the judiciary. While such organizations may, in some sense, be educational and civic in nature, they have also become organizations with political goals, in the broader sense mentioned above. There are very few issues today with a more significant legislative and political content than civil rights. It is, as a practical matter, almost impossible to deliver the most dispassionate lecture on the subject without the highest risk of being perceived as a partisan for or against legislation and, sometimes, for or against particular candidates or office holders. Hence, we must carefully examine the organizations and petitioner's role in them. The United Progressive Homeowners and Taxpayers Association is an organization that was formed as a direct outgrowth of the Citizens Participation Group of the Freehold Borough for HUD. The organization has no affiliation with any political party, does not endorse political candidates or seek to influence legislation. It was involved directly in soliciting funds from the community to develop a county-owned building known as the Court Street School as a community resource facility. Norma Randolph is second vice-president of the organization; her name is on the letterhead. She describes her duties as being to fill in for the president and first vice-president if necessary. Petitioner negotiated directly with county officials for the allocation of funds; she has been described as the spokesperson for the organization; and serves as the liaison representative of the Greater Red Bank NAACP to this organization. We are satisfied that on this record petitioner's advocacy role on behalf of this organization in the solicitation of funds from public agencies and in its efforts to influence the appropriation or allocation of public funds to the development of the community center possesses the realistic likelihood for political conflict between competing community groups over the allocation of these diminishing resources. Consequently, we cannot sanction continued public involvement in issues that pose a realistic likelihood of compromising the independence of the judiciary. Our final and most sympathetic concern is with Mrs. Randolph's desire to continue to serve as an officer of the Greater Red Bank Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Knowledge of its purposes and goals is part of our national culture. See NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 83 S.Ct. 328, 9 L.Ed. 2d 405 (1963). Its members seek, through cooperative organizational activity, to achieve the legitimate political goal of eliminating all racial barriers that deprive black citizens of the privileges and burdens of equal citizenship rights in the United States. Id. at 430, 83 S.Ct. at 336, 9 L.Ed. 2d at 416. To be thus involved is a deeply felt goal of its members for [o]ur form of government is built on the premise that every citizen shall have the right to engage in political expression and association. Id. at 431, 83 S.Ct. at 337, 9 L.Ed. 2d at 417 (quoting Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 250-51, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1211-1212, 1 L.Ed. 2d 1311, 1325 (1957)). Yet we cannot deny that in conducting its activities the organization would be unfaithful to its purposes if it did not seek to hurl itself into the center of the deeply divisive political controversies that surround the elimination of every trace of prejudice and bias in our society. The charter of the Greater Red Bank Branch of the NAACP evidences commitment to the same goals. In achieving these goals, although non-partisan, the organization cannot and should not refrain from political activity in the broader sense of influencing governmental policy. Among its committees is a political action committee whose duties, according to the constitution and by-laws, include to: 1. Seek to increase registration and voting. 2. Work for the enactment of municipal, state and federal legislation designed to improve the educational, political, and economic status of minority groups. 3. Seek the repeal of racially discriminatory legislation. 4. Work to improve the administration of justice. 5. Work to secure equal enforcement of the law. 6. Keep the National Office and the Branch informed of all proposed legislation which affects minority groups. The Committee shall be non-partisan and shall not endorse candidates for public office. The Red Bank chapter does not support or oppose specific political candidates. Once a year, however, the branch does host a Candidate Night on which all candidates are invited to present their views; local press coverage of the event in 1983 is part of the record below. The organization's primary work consists of efforts to register voters. All of its members participate in house-by-house canvassing for registration, and on election days, including the day of a school board election, members record non-voters and offer transportation to polling places. No record or apparent effort is made to ascertain or advocate a particular party affiliation of any voter. In this case the record discloses as well that in the period of inquiry the Greater Red Bank Branch had been actively involved in public positions with respect to the discriminatory effect of various public issues. These and other community issues are deeply political, involving the most fundamental of governmental choices. In our state not all would agree that the premises of Mount Laurel II reflect the harmonious accommodation of mutual interests of the various members of society. It was the Southern Burlington County NAACP that was the party-plaintiff in the original litigation that brought the issue to court. See Southern Burlington County N.A.A.C.P. v. Mount Laurel Township, 92 N.J. 158 (1983). Concededly, Norma Randolph's branch is not now involved in such pending or current litigation. Yet when the parties to such litigation are ushered into the courtroom, are administered the oath, and the case proceeds, we must ask whether they would have the fullest confidence knowing that an officer of the court was at one and the same time an officer of an organization actively pursuing the litigation. And even if the organization were not itself an active party litigant, every citizen involved in these deeply controversial public issues should share the unshakeable confidence that the judiciary has removed itself from such controversy and stands ready, if called upon, to decide dispassionately and impartially appropriate issues that may be presented to it for adjudication. On this record, we are left with a certainty that an advocacy or leadership role by Norma Randolph in voter registration activities, candidates' nights, reallocation of surplus foods, or private-sector employment poses a realistic threat of compromising the independence of the judiciary. These activities  especially voter-registration drives and candidate nights  inevitably spill over into the political arena. Since her duties as trustee or executive board member bring her into these public issues or controversies, holding such office while serving as a courtroom officer is inconsistent with the assurance that ours is an independent judiciary in fact and appearance. It cannot be permitted.