Opinion ID: 197054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the gathering storm

Text: 6 N-PAC is a political committee within the contemplation of RSA 664:2, III and has been registered as such with the Secretary of State for over a decade. The organization's stated purpose is to promote the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. N-PAC works in a variety of ways to accomplish this goal. Among other stratagems, it supports (or opposes) various candidates for state office whom it perceives as endorsing (or denigrating) its views. N-PAC's support manifests itself through the expenditure of funds for such purposes as purchasing advertisements and distributing leaflets. 7 Over the past decade N-PAC typically has spent all the contributions that it receives on some form of right-to-life political advocacy. The 1996 election followed this well-trodden path. Originally, N-PAC vowed to make political expenditures opposing a certain candidate in the primary election, but that candidate withdrew. N-PAC then shifted gears and decided to throw its support behind a different candidate who was running for state office in the primary election. 4 8 Ellen Dube, a state employee, functions as the Secretary of State's liaison with the Attorney General. One of Dube's duties is to report possible violations of RSA 664 to the Attorney General, who then makes the decision whether to investigate and/or prosecute. On March 6, 1996, N-PAC's president, Barbara Hagan, telephoned Dube. Hagan inquired if the state intended to enforce the statutory limitation on independent expenditures. Dube replied that infractions would be noticed and that the state would commence enforcement actions against any persons who violated RSA 664:5, V. Hagan subsequently posed the same question to Wynn Arnold, a member of the Attorney General's staff. Arnold advised her that the initiation of an enforcement action would depend on whether there had been a referral from the Secretary of State. He refused to deny that the Attorney General would enforce RSA 664:5, V. 9 N-PAC then filed suit in New Hampshire's federal district court against the Secretary of State, William M. Gardner, and the Attorney General, Jeffrey R. Howard. N-PAC's verified complaint alleged that it intended to exceed the limitation on independent expenditures in the 1996 election campaign, that it feared prosecution if it did so, and that the challenged statutory provisions impermissibly burdened its free-speech rights and thereby ran afoul of the Supreme Court's holding in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976) (per curiam). N-PAC sought a declaratory judgment that RSA 664:5, V and 664:3, I & II on their face chill its political expression and thereby abridge its constitutional rights. It also sought an order restraining the defendants from enforcing these statutes against it. 10 Within a week, N-PAC filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. In describing the need for this relief, N-PAC focused on three sets of expenditures which it intended to make for the September 10 primary election: (1) its contemplated purchase of an advertisement endorsing the candidate in the June edition of the New Hampshire Right to Life Committee (NHRLC) newsletter (estimated cost: $900); (2) its planned distribution at public events around the state on July 4 of roughly 30,000 fliers supporting the candidate (estimated cost: slightly over $3,000); and (3) its proposed purchase of a follow-up advertisement in either the August or September issue of the NHRLC newsletter (estimated cost not disclosed in the record). 11 After deposing Hagan and learning of these projected expenditures, the defendants informed N-PAC that the state would not take any enforcement action because of its belief that the pattern of contacts between N-PAC and the candidate whom it had opted to support precluded classification of the proposed expenditures as independent within the purview of RSA 664:2, XI. As what seemed to them a logical corollary of this determination, the defendants asserted that in the absence of a threat of enforcement, N-PAC could not claim to have suffered any cognizable injury by operation of the challenged statutes and therefore had no standing to contest their constitutionality. 12 On June 21, 1996, the district court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction. In that same order the court--relying heavily on the Attorney General's representation that the specified expenditures, if made, would not engender prosecution--sua sponte dismissed the action for want of standing. 5 In the court's view its conclusion that N-PAC lacked standing present[ed] a constitutional barrier not only to the adjudication of the instant motion but also to the court's consideration of the merits of the case. As part and parcel of this determination, the court concluded that N-PAC did not face a credible threat of prosecution based on the aggregate effect of the $900 expenditure it had already made and the other two planned expenditures. Importantly, the court neither dwelt on N-PAC's prayer for declaratory relief nor assayed the threat of prosecution vis-a-vis other potential expenditures. 13 N-PAC filed this appeal, but it refrained from printing the fliers or purchasing a second advertisement.