Opinion ID: 4283041
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Utah Democratic Party

Text: 24 Nonetheless, this lawsuit demonstrates why states would be prudent to use percentages, rather than absolute totals, when requiring candidates to obtain signatures in order to qualify for the ballot. That way, as voter populations ebb and flow and partisan compositions change district-by-district, the amount of support necessary to demonstrate viability remains the same. This is the traditional method, and one we strongly encourage states to adopt moving forward. 39 At the district court the Utah Democratic Party (“UDP”) intervened as a plaintiff in part to “ensure [the State] appl[ies] the laws equally to all Utahns, no matter what political party, if any, they choose to join.” Aplt. App. 99. The UDP— joined in this instance by the State—argues that the URP’s arguments in this lawsuit are barred by the doctrines of claim preclusion, issue preclusion, and claim splitting based on the outcome of the First Lawsuit. Democrats Br. at 17–24; Aple. Br. at 47. Because we hold that the URP’s constitutional claims fail, we have no reason to reach the merits of the UDP’s cross-appeal from the district court’s ruling that the URP’s arguments were not so barred.25 Additionally, the UDP argues that the district court erred in invalidating portions of the URP’s constitution and bylaws that conflict with SB54 as interpreted by the Utah Supreme Court and the district court. Democrats’ Br. at 9–10. Specifically, the UDP takes issue with the district court’s comment that the “stated URP intention to ban a member from nomination if that member fails to secure at least 40% of the delegate vote at convention is directly contrary to state law and is invalid.” See URP IV, 178 F. Supp. 3d at 1184. The UDP argues that the district court was powerless to invalidate the URP’s bylaws, and the choice of whether to comply with state law (and remain a QPP) or violate state law (and revert to RPP status) should be left with the URP. Democrats’ Br. at 11–13. In other words, the 25 In so doing we also express no opinion on the URP’s claim that these arguments necessarily fail under Rule 28(i) and the “cross-appeal” rule. See Aplt. Reply at 25– 27 (citing Fed. R. App. P. 28(i) and Bernstein v. Bankert, 733 F.3d 190, 224 (7th Cir. 2013)). 40 UDP argues that the district court should have invalidated the URP’s status as a QPP rather than simply striking the offending provisions in the URP bylaws so the URP would remain a QPP. This is essentially the exact question certified to the Utah Supreme Court by the district court earlier in this litigation. On April 8, 2016, the Utah Supreme Court addressed the following question, certified at the request of the UDP: “If a registered political party (RPP) that has selected to be designated as a Qualified Political Party (QPP) fails to satisfy the requirements of a QPP, must the Lieutenant Governor treat that political party as a RPP under Utah law?” Utah Republican Party v. Cox, 373 P.3d 1286, 1287 (Utah 2016). The Utah Supreme Court declined to answer that question, concluding that it was not yet ripe for review. Id. We agree. Drawing its application both from “Article III limitations on judicial power” and “prudential reasons for refusing to exercise jurisdiction,” Stolt-Nielson S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U.S. 662, 670 n.2 (2010), “[t]he ripeness doctrine aims to prevent courts from entangling themselves in abstract disagreements by avoiding premature adjudication.” Awad v. Ziriax, 670 F.3d 1111, 1124 (10th Cir. 2012) (internal quotations omitted). “A claim is not ripe for adjudication if it rests upon ‘contingent future events that may not occur as anticipated, or indeed may not occur at all.’” Texas v. United States, 523 U.S. 296, 300 (1998) (quoting Thomas v. Union Carbide Agric. Prods. Co., 473 U.S. 568, 580–81 (1985)). Prudential ripeness is traditionally considered through the two-prong test established in Abbot Labs v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149 (1967), under which courts assess (1) “the fitness of the 41 issues for judicial decision[,]” and (2) “the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration.” See, e.g., Fourth Corner Credit Union v. Fed. Reserve Bank of Kan. City, 861 F.3d 1052, 1059 (10th Cir. 2017) (Matheson, J., concurring) (quoting United States v. White, 244 F.3d 1199, 1202 (10th Cir. 2001)). In declining to answer the certified question, the Utah Supreme Court noted that it was as yet unclear whether the URP, if it were to lose its challenge to SB54’s constitutionality, would enforce its constitution and bylaws. Utah Republican Party, 373 P.3d at 1288 (“At present there are multiple options available to the Republican Party once this court’s interpretation of the QPP statute is published, and it is not clearly established in the record which of those the party will choose.”). In assessing the record before us, we find that nothing has changed in this respect. As the Utah Supreme Court observed, the URP has offered conflicting statements during the course of this litigation about its intention to comply with SB54. Compare id. at 1288 (“The Chairman of the Utah Republican Party sent a letter to the Lieutenant Governor in December 2015 declaring that ‘it would restrict its candidate-selection procedures to the convention method, thereby prohibiting any URP candidate from gathering signatures.’”) with id. at 1288–89 (“More recently, however, counsel for the Republican Party [stated that] ‘if the state law says that we have to allow both routes and if that is what the Supreme Court decides and if we have elected to be a QPP, then we would have to figure a way how to change our constitution and by-laws to conform to the state law.’”). 42 Against this backdrop, the doctrine of ripeness counsels that it is premature for this Court to determine the appropriate remedy should the URP flout the dictates of SB54. Considering first the “fitness of the issues for judicial decision,” Abbott Labs, 387 U.S. at 149, we find that the UDP’s cross-appeal is littered with uncertainty. Perhaps, following the conclusion of this lawsuit, the URP will expel members who choose to pursue the primary ballot through the signature-gathering process. Doing so would violate state law under the Utah Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Either or Both provision, and the question of what remedy is appropriate would thus ripen for review. Perhaps the URP will decline to enforce its bylaws, in which case the UDP’s claim of hardship would become moot.26 Perhaps the URP will voluntarily amend its constitution and bylaws in response to this litigation prior to the 2018 election, which will again moot this question. Given this uncertainty, we cannot conclude that the issue of what remedy is appropriate when a political party’s constitution and bylaws contravene state law is prudently fit at this time for judicial consideration before this court.27 26 It is possible that if the URP leaves its bylaws and constitution intact but simply refuses to enforce them, there may be some hardship to individual candidates or the UDP by virtue of the chilling effect those bylaws would have on potential candidates. This issue was not raised by the parties, however, and thus we decline to address it. The UDP’s claims were dismissed by the district court without prejudice, Aplt. App. 1203–04, thus if it would like to renew this claim of hardship at a later date, it is free to do so. 27 The Court does take judicial notice of the fact that multiple Utah Republican candidates have qualified for primary election ballots using the signature-gathering method—including the current Republican Governor—and have not been expelled from the Party. See, e.g., Ben Winslow and Mark Green, Gov. Gary Herbert forced 43 As for the second prong, “the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration,” id., we do not find that the UDP will be significantly impaired by our decision here today. By declining to address the remedy of a violation which may never occur, we simply maintain the status quo. Accordingly, we find that the Democrats’ alleged injury is not ripe for review.