Opinion ID: 2411780
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: board members' injuries

Text: The first factor to consider when applying the Anderson balancing test is the character and magnitude of the asserted injury to rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. In this analytical section we focus solely on injuries alleged under the First Amendment. The alleged injury to Virginia Chapman and Ron Peace, appellants who are school board members, does not involve a fundamental right because no such status is given to candidacy. Bullock v. Carter, 405 U.S. 134, 143, 92 S.Ct. 849, 855, 31 L.Ed.2d 92 (1972); Yonts v. Commonwealth, Ky., 700 S.W.2d 407 (1985). See also, J. Nowak, R. Rotunda, and J.N. Young, Constitutional Law, Chap. 16, § VIII, p. 776, (2d ed. 1983); L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law, § 13-19 (2d ed. 1988). The federal circuit courts of appeal, under Equal Protection Clause analysis, sometimes within the context of First Amendment challenges, as the trial court observed, have adhered to Bullock v. Carter, supra , in holding that there is no fundamental right to candidacy. See, Stiles v. Blunt, 912 F.2d 260, 265 (8th Cir. 1990); Zielasko v. State of Ohio, supra ; Hatten v. Rains, 854 F.2d 687, 693 (5th Cir. 1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1106, 109 S.Ct. 3156, 104 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1989); Plante v. Gonzalez, 575 F.2d 1119, 1126 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied 439 U.S. 1129, 99 S.Ct. 1047, 59 L.Ed.2d 90 (1979). Appellants, Virginia Chapman and Ron Peace, are only deprived of becoming candidates for re-election to the school board in the district where their relatives were hired as employees, after appellants initially took office as members on the Board. Appellants' candidacies thus, are not forever barred. If their relatives transfer to work in another school district, or change jobs entirely, appellants will no longer be foreclosed from seeking re-election to their posts. Moreover, appellants at present are only denied the opportunity to seek reelection to the school board as long as they fit within the disqualifying parameters of the statutes. Appellants remain free to seek every other office in the Commonwealth.