Opinion ID: 527787
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The League's Allegedly Partisan Conduct

Text: 23 Although we find that Fulani has alleged sufficient injury to satisfy the standing requirements, her claim on the merits fails. The League's exclusion of Fulani from the primary debates it sponsored during the early part of 1988, on the facts presented herein, did not constitute partisan activity in contravention of its tax-exempt status under I.R.C. Sec. 501(c)(3). 24 At the outset, we agree with Fulani that the prohibition against partisan activity in section 501(c)(3) bars more than the partisan promotion of certain candidates over other candidates, and we agree that an organization's selective promotion of certain parties over others would be inconsistent with its section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. See Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 858 F.2d at 879, 880 ( '[t]he prohibition on political campaign activities [in I.R.C. Sec. 501(c)(3) ] ... reflect[s] Congressional policies that the U.S. Treasury should be neutral in political affairs' ) (quoting from H.R.Rep. No. 391, 100th Cong., 1st Sess. 1621, 1625 (1987), reprinted in 1987 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 2313-1, 2313-1201, 2313-1205). Herein, however, appellant Fulani's contention that the League engaged in partisan activity when it limited participation in the primary debates it sponsored to members of either the Democratic or Republican Party is without merit. In assessing whether the League's inclusion of only Democratic and Republican candidates in its primary debates was partisan, we must first consider the context in which that limitation was made, and then examine that action in light of the claims advanced by appellants. 25 It is of critical importance that the subject debates were not general election debates. Rather, they were primary season debates, sponsored by the League in an effort to educate the electorate about the candidates who were vying for the nomination of either the Republican or the Democratic Party. While primary contests are, in a broad sense, an integral part of the whole presidential election process, they also serve an important function in our current electoral system separate and distinct from that served by the general presidential election contest which occurs quadrennially in November. 26 Most often, presidential primary elections are state-wide political party contests among candidates who seek to garner the commitment or support of delegates who select that party's nominee for President during the national party's political convention. Primary contests, then, are essentially intra-party competitions. Although such candidates are members of the same party, each may have a separate political agenda for the party's future, and they present themselves to those who are eligible to vote in the primary as the candidate who will best represent the party in the general election. See Nader v. Schaffer, 417 F.Supp. 837, 844 (D.Conn.) (three-judge court), aff'd mem., 429 U.S. 989, 97 S.Ct. 516, 50 L.Ed.2d 602 (1976). 27 The League of Women Voters Education Fund historically has sponsored primary debates during presidential election years in an effort to educate voters about relevant issues and about candidates seeking to become party nominees. As discussed, in 1988 the League sponsored three separate debates for the significant candidates who were seeking either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party nomination. In each of these intra-party debates, the League provided candidates with a forum to debate each other so that those eligible to vote might decide which candidate could best represent the Democratic or Republican Party in the upcoming general election. By bringing together in one forum the significant candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and, in another forum, the significant candidates for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, the League's Board endeavored to help voters and supporters make an informed choice when time came to vote in the Republican and Democratic primary contests. It is against this backdrop that we must assess Fulani's claims. Appellants do not argue that the League failed to provide contending independent and minor-party candidates with an opportunity to debate issues and present candidates germane to their own respective nominating processes equal to that afforded the major parties, and therefore we need not address this issue. Instead, Fulani contends that, as a significant independent and minor-party presidential candidate, she was entitled to, and should have been provided with, an opportunity to engage the candidates for the Republican and Democratic Party nominations in a multi-party dialogue about issues of national concern. 28 In so arguing, Fulani has miscast the purpose of the primary phase of national elections. As discussed, primary elections are an internal mechanism by which parties resolve intra-party differences prior to party nominating conventions, if any, and prior to the general election, and they are the mechanism by which parties select standard bearers to represent them in the upcoming general election. See Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724, 735, 94 S.Ct. 1274, 1281, 39 L.Ed.2d 714 (1974) (contending forces within the party employ the primary campaign and primary election to finally settle their differences). Fulani's attack on the League's primary voter education program essentially blurs the distinctions between the primary phase and the general election phase of the contest for the presidency, insofar as Fulani sought to compel the League to convert its primary season voter education program into a general election program for educating voters about inter-party differences. At least for purposes of deciding this appeal, we believe the distinctions between the primary and general election phases of the presidential contest are legitimate and proper ones to draw. 29 Given the goals underlying the primary phase of the presidential election contest--i.e., to resolve intra-party disputes and select among competing candidates--it becomes clear that the League's limiting of the debates to Republican and Democratic Party candidates was not partisan, and thus was not in contravention of I.R.C. Sec. 501(c)(3). Rather, it was a logical consequence of the nature and role of primary contests in the electoral process. There has been no contention in this appeal that the League improperly excluded significant minor parties in designing its primary voter education program, only that the League improperly excluded Fulani as a single significant candidate from the subject debate forum. Fulani, however, was neither a candidate nor a participant in either of the primary contests that were the subject of the League's challenged voter education program. Since Fulani was not competing in either of those primary contests, it was not improper for the League to exclude her from the three debates in issue.