Opinion ID: 787590
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the remand on narrow tailoring

Text: 442 My concerns over the remand to the district court for various findings are fourfold. First, my colleagues' opinion draws no distinction between legislative facts, mixed questions of legislative fact and law, adjudicative facts, and issues of law — on this record distinctions of crucial importance to any further proceedings in the district court and in this court. Second, it is unclear what parts of Act 64 my colleagues deem to be restrictive, and to what degree, thereby hampering if not precluding any comparison with alternatives. Third, vastly less restrictive alternatives with no constitutional implications are so obvious that a remand is unnecessary. Fourth, on many issues, the forum that needs to be heard from is not the district court but the Vermont legislature. 443 a) Legislative Facts, Adjudicative Facts, and Mixed Issues of Fact and Law 444 One of the difficulties I had with my colleagues' earlier opinion — but did not elaborate in my earlier dissent — was that it did not make clear which facts are of a legislative nature — facts that determine the appropriateness of a rule of law — and which facts are of an adjudicative nature — facts that affect the legal relations of the particular parties to a particular lawsuit. See Fed.R.Evid. 201, Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules (explaining the fundamental differences between adjudicative facts and legislative facts. Adjudicative facts are simply the facts of the particular case. Legislative facts, on the other hand, are those which have relevance to legal reasoning and the lawmaking process, whether in the formulation of a legal principle or ruling by a judge or court or in the enactment of a legislative body.); see also Langevin v. Chenango Court, Inc., 447 F.2d 296, 300 (2d Cir.1971) (Adjudicative facts are facts about the parties and their activities, businesses, and properties, as distinguished from general facts which help the tribunal decide questions of law and policy and discretion.) (Friendly, C.J.) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Nor did my colleagues' earlier opinion separate factual matters from mixed issues of legislative fact and law. The remand for fact finding has now pushed these issues to the forefront. 445 1) The Distinction Between Legislative and Adjudicative Facts 446 I recognize that the distinction between legislative and adjudicative facts is no bright line and is often judicially finessed. See Kenneth Culp Davis, An Approach to Problems of Evidence in the Administrative Process, 55 Harv. L. Rev. 364, 403 (1942) (courts have generally treated legislative facts differently from adjudicative facts, even though the distinction has not been clearly articulated). In the present case, however, the perceived need for a remand appears to be based on the conviction that adjudicative facts need to be resolved. In my view, that is not so. 447 Legislative facts are factual assumptions or conclusions that cause a court to choose one rule of law rather than another or to hold that certain circumstances meet a particular legal test. See Fed.R.Evid. 201, Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules. Legislative facts thus govern all future cases implicating the particular rule of law or its application and are not subject to future challenge by a litigant save by an attempt to have the rule of law overruled. My colleagues' repeated reliance on the existence of an arms race, their adoption of the level of notice/effective advocacy test defined by average past expenditures, and their conclusion that Act 64's expenditure limits meet that test, all rest on factual assumptions about candidate spending. These assumptions are quintessential legislative facts. 448 Determination of legislative facts is not governed by the Federal Rules of Evidence. See Fed.R.Evid. 201, Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules. Nor are they subject to clearly erroneous review under Fed.R.Civ.P. 52. See In re Asbestos Litigation, 829 F.2d 1233, 1252 n. 11 (3d Cir. 1987) (citing Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162, 106 S.Ct. 1758, 90 L.Ed.2d 137 (1986)). Instead, they are subject to de novo review, and appellate courts not only can find legislative facts on their own but they also usually do so. See Davis, supra, at 403-07 (describing Supreme Court and other cases in which appellate courts found legislative facts). The practice is so common that what technically might be called mixed issues of legislative fact and law are often treated simply as issues of law. Whether expenditure limits set at the level of average past spending are sufficient for effective advocacy, for example, is just such an issue. 449 Adjudicative facts determine the legal relations of particular parties with regard to particular issues of controversy. Adjudicative facts do not govern the results of future litigation — save for the application of doctrines of preclusion such as res judicata and collateral estoppel. Determination of these facts is governed by the Federal Rules of Evidence and may be based on credibility determinations. Significantly, adjudicative facts are subject to clearly erroneous review on appeal under Rule 52. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). Examples of adjudicative facts are whether one party struck another by driving an auto through a red light. 450 2) Remand for Findings of Legislative Fact and of Law 451 In my view, my colleagues fail to observe the adjudicative/legislative distinction because they view legislative facts relating to the constitutionality of Act 64 as the sole province of the district court, while an appellate court may address only the legal issues arising from these facts. As their opinion expressly states, [A]lthough we do not question the validity of the factual findings developed by the legislature in support of Act 64, our system of judicial review provides plaintiffs the opportunity to present competing evidence, assigns to the District Court the responsibility for making findings of fact and conclusions of law after weighing the evidence, and leaves to the Court of Appeals the independent responsibility to assess the legal significance of these factual findings. Maj. Op. at 114 (footnote omitted). As a result, the remand in the present case seeks findings on legislative facts, mixed issues of legislative fact and law, and even pure questions of law. 452 My colleagues remand for findings on whether higher limits would achieve the anti-corruption and anti-time consumption goals and impinge less on the First Amendment rights of candidates and voters. Id. at 135-36. This inquiry is described by them as a fact intensive question of whether that point is set in Act 64 or appreciably higher and apparently is viewed as an adjudicative fact as to which the district court may make credibility determinations that are binding on this court unless clearly erroneous. See id. at 136; Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). However, the issues are clearly ones of mixed legislative fact and law that can and should be decided by this court. 453 It is undisputed that: (i) the view that Act 64's limits will not substantially affect candidate spending is arrived at only by averaging in spending in essentially non-contested elections and using a definition of spending much narrower — one that excludes all related expenditures by individuals and political parties — than that used by the Act; and (ii) even under the narrow definition, the limits are far below spending in actual contested elections in Vermont, including spending by third party candidates. All that is left is the legal question of the sufficiency of the governmental interest in justifying the restrictions on speech. 454 My colleagues also remand for what they describe as fact-finding on [the] issues of 455 (1) what alternatives were considered by the legislature, including both alternative types of regulations and alternative amounts for the limits; (2) why these alternatives were rejected; (3) whether and how these alternatives would impinge less on First Amendment rights; and (4) whether the alternatives would be as effective as the mandatory spending limits in advancing the time-protection and anti-corruption interests. 456 Maj. Op. at 136 (footnote omitted). None of these issues involves adjudicative facts. Issues (3) and (4) are clearly questions of mixed legislative fact and law, if not solely of law, while issues (1) and (2) involve determinations of legislative history. 457 For yet another example, footnote 23 of my colleagues' opinion indicates that findings are to be made on remand as to a pure matter of law: whether required reports of spending by candidates for past elections included related expenditures as defined in Act 64, i.e. including spending by individuals and political parties. Id. at 135 n. 23. This is an issue of Vermont law over which there is no dispute. Prior Vermont law never mentioned related expenditures; the term was first introduced and defined in Act 64; before that there were contribution limits on individuals, and political parties could give and spend freely; there are, therefore, no facts to find. 458 In the same footnote my colleagues also ask for findings with regard to whether legal and record-keeping costs of compliance with [Act 64] will also inflate future candidates' expenditures. Id. My colleagues appear to concede that such costs are expenditures and are therefore limited by Act 64. What more need be known? There are no adjudicative facts at issue here. The Secretary of State has advised candidates to obtain legal advice, and any legal or record keeping costs will drastically affect, say, a House candidate who must wage both a primary and general election contest with a total two-year expenditure limit of $2,000. The trees in Vermont may be beautiful, but needed professional services do not grow on them. 459 My colleagues now concede that this court will apply de novo review to legislative facts found by the district court. Id. at 135 n. 24. However, my colleagues make no attempt to inform the parties and the district court of what findings are to be of legislative fact and what are to be of adjudicative fact. For example, my colleagues remand for fact-finding on the types and amounts of limits rejected by the Vermont legislature and the reasons for rejection. Id. at 136. I see no comparative advantage in the district court's researching this question of legislative history unless it is contemplated — and I assume it is not — that the district court will take testimony on the state of mind of the then-legislators, resolve credibility issues, and find facts on these issues. 460 My colleagues do agree that a distinction between legislative and adjudicative facts exists and that legislative facts are reviewed de novo while adjudicative facts are reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard. However, they never identify which of the many findings to be made on remand are legislative and which are adjudicative, and, therefore, what rules to apply to each. This failure will greatly complicate further proceedings. 461 In my view, virtually all the issues remanded are ones of legislative fact or of law, and, therefore, there is no reason for a remand. Moreover, if my colleagues believe that further findings of legislative fact are needed, they can request briefing of the relevant issues by the parties, rather than returning questions of law to the district court only to have us later resolve them de novo. 462 b) Failure to Define What is Restrictive About Act 64 463 Clarification is also needed with regard to the inquiry on remand as to whether there are less restrictive alternatives available. As I said at the outset of this dissent, my colleagues still fail to analyze much of what Act 64 actually says and does, and, as a result, their opinion contains few descriptions of significant political speech that they deem to be restrained by Act 64. An inquiry into less restrictive alternatives requires some identification and discussion of those restrictions for which an alternative might be substituted. That is to say, an available legal rule may be deemed less restrictive only after its restrictions are compared with the restrictions of an existing legal rule. Colorado II, 533 U.S. at 464-65, 121 S.Ct. 2351 (comparing restrictiveness of existing limitation on coordinated expenditures with available legal rule limiting contributions alone). However, my colleagues' opinion neither acknowledges nor denies that Act 64: intrudes on grassroots activities of ordinary citizens, restricts the press' editorializing or reporting on political events, disadvantages candidates who must run in two elections rather than one, and so on and so on. 464 The lacunae in my colleagues' opinion are nowhere better exemplified than by the remand with regard to related expenditures. Maj. Op. at 137. The two sentences directing this remand precede a discussion upholding Act 64's treatment of related expenditures as contributions. That discussion notes that limits on related expenditures are designed to avoid evasions of the limits on contributions. Id. at 145-46. For example, if someone can both lend office space to a candidate and make a cash contribution at the maximum limit, that person can evade the limits. 465 Before this discussion, their opinion states On remand, independent of the constitutionality of expenditure limits, the district court should evaluate [the constitutionality of treating related expenditures as candidate expenditures]. Id. at 137. Of course, one reason the related expenditure provision was included in Act 64 was that cash or in-kind expenditures by individuals coordinated with a campaign are an obvious method of evading candidate expenditure limits as well as contribution limits. To return to the prior example, if a person lends office space to a candidate, the cost must be treated as an expenditure subject to the limits on campaign expenditures, or those limits can be evaded. Because Act 64 reflects the view that expenditure limits cannot be effective without treating individual and party related expenditures as expenditures by the candidates, it is enigmatic, to say the least, to ask the district court to evaluate this issue ... independent of the constitutionality of expenditure limits. My colleagues appear to be troubled by Act 64's limits on related expenditures but fail to describe or discuss the reasons for their disquiet. Such a description or discussion would surely be helpful to the district court and the parties. 466 c) The Existence of a Less Restrictive Alternative 467 I turn now to the question of whether, if Act 64 contains the restrictions described in this dissent, there are less restrictive alternatives. My colleagues frame this issue as an inquiry into what alternatives were actually considered by the Vermont legislature. See Maj. Op. at 135. That is not the proper inquiry. 31 A state may not impose laws suppressing political speech and then successfully defend them on the ground that it was ignorant of alternatives. Rather, the issue is the existence of less restrictive alternatives, not whether a particular legislature considered them. See Boos v. Barry, 485 U.S. 312, 329, 108 S.Ct. 1157, 99 L.Ed.2d 333 (1988); Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Education, 476 U.S. 267, 280 n. 6, 106 S.Ct. 1842, 90 L.Ed.2d 260 (noting that the term narrowly tailored require[s] consideration of whether lawful alternative and less restrictive means could have been used). 468 Moreover, when properly framed, the answer to the inquiry is so self-evident in the present case that a remand is unnecessary: a combination of public and private financing with low contribution limits is infinitely less restrictive — is actually speech supportive — and accomplishes all of the ostensible purposes of Act 64's expenditure limits. Public financing of campaigns is of unquestioned validity, see Buckley, 424 U.S. at 57, n. 65, 85-109, 96 S.Ct. 612, and, combined with low limits on private contributions, can guarantee a critical mass of funds to all candidates, thereby freeing candidates of improper influence from particular donors and relieving candidates of the need for extensive fund-raising. Such a combination of public and private financing with low contribution limits would impose only a modest burden on taxpayers, who, we are told, are anxious to eliminate undue influence by donors. 469 My colleagues suggest in a footnote, see Maj. Op. at 136 n.25, that the conclusion that a combination of public and private financing would satisfy the goals of Act 64 is neither self-evident nor supported by the record. To the contrary, if any conclusion is established, it is this one. As my colleagues' opinion repeatedly states, low contribution limits further the anti-corruption goal. And, as the Vermont legislature has stated, public financing (provided in gubernatorial races) furthers both the anti-corruption and time protection goals. 1997 Vt. Laws P.A. 64 (H. 28) (findings nos. 11 and 12). Public funding money does not come from private sources, is quickly obtained, and lessens the need for private money because it is as negotiable. 470 The problem with this speech-supportive alternative is not its dubious merit but the fact that incumbent legislators know that a combination of public and private financing would vastly increase the number and viability of challengers. The dark secret of campaign finance reform is that its proponents avoid this alternative in a Faustian bargain with incumbent legislators who reject it out of self-interest. Incumbents prefer speech-limiting expenditure limits, a preference that will gain in intensity if federal courts will allow such limits to be based on past average spending and to be upheld so long as they do not drive challenger campaigns below the level of notice. 471 d) Remanding to the Wrong Forum 472 As I have argued above, even if expenditure limits were not per se illegal, the limits set by Act 64 are so ridiculously low that they fail under any reasonable standard. In fact, they are so low that they would diminish spending by third party candidates, not generally regarded as generators of arms races, and would limit even modest grassroots activities by supporters. Similarly, the restrictions on spending by local party affiliates fail because no reason has been offered to justify them. Holding the expenditure limits and the restrictions on the financial organization of political parties unconstitutional would send these issues back for reconsideration to the proper forum — the Vermont legislature. 473 My colleagues show great deference to the Vermont legislature and to the various legislative proponents of Act 64 whose views are in the record. This deference is entirely undeserved. There is not the slightest evidence that either the legislature or those proponents ever examined the details of the Act or how they impact those ordinary political activities that are indispensable to democratic rule. Consequently, the legislators never weighed Act 64's costs in suppressed activity. There is no evidence of any discussion of, inter alia, the effects on grassroots activity, the two-year cycle, the effect on the press, the costs of legal services to candidates, or the radical restructuring of political parties. 474 In fact, their own testimony suggesting that meet and greet events such as spaghetti suppers, little parties for 150 people to which a couple hundred people are invited by mail, booths at county fairs, barbecues, and op-ed articles in the press are campaigning methods not involving Act 64's expenditure limits, see supra Part II(b), itself reflects an awesome ignorance of Act 64's provisions. Moreover, it is certainly hard to find any explanation other than ignorance of the contents of Act 64 for the fact that the executive director of the Vermont Democratic party challenged, as harmful to grassroots activities, the ruling by the Secretary of State that Act 64's limits on contributions to parties treat all party affiliates as a single unit, see Secretary of State Being Criticized for Fund Raising Ruling, Associated Press, May 28, 1999, even though the ruling simply followed the plain language of the Act. 475 The lobbyist who secured passage of Act 64, who has been described as its author, and who is quoted at great length in my colleagues' opinion, has since brought an action in the district court to have the treatment of related expenditures declared unconstitutional as infringing on the (his) right to engage in political activities. See Vermont Reformer Says Law He Authored Is Unconstitutional, Political Finance, The Newsletter, March, 2002 (describing Anthony Pollina's lawsuit to have Act 64 ruled unconstitutional); Ross Sneyd, Progressives Sue To Ensure Public Financing for Pollina, Associated Press, March 12, 2002 (noting that Anthony Pollina calls his lawsuit ironic); see also Complaint at 1, Pollina v. Markowitz, No. 2:02-CV-63 (D.Vt. Mar. 11, 2002) (Plaintiffs claim that certain provisions of Act 64 violate their First Amendment free speech and association rights, do not serve compelling state interests, and violate equal protection and due process of law, both facially and as applied.). 476 Officeholders have filed disclosure forms that indicate a continuing lack of knowledge of the requirements of Act 64, in particular the need to record and disclose mileage and the value of office space and outside professional services. See, e.g., Campaign Finance Report of William Doyle, Dec. 16, 2002 (listing no mileage expenses for himself or any supporters, or any value derived from use of office space, computers, utilities, etc., or any outside legal or accounting services); Campaign Finance Report of William Doyle, Sept. 25, 2002 (same); Campaign Finance Report of William Doyle, Oct. 25, 2000 (same); Campaign Finance Report of Anthony Pollina, Dec. 16, 2002 (listing no mileage expenses for any supporters or any value derived from use of office space, computers, utilities, etc., or any outside legal or accounting services); Campaign Finance Report of Jeb Spaulding, Dec. 15, 2002 (same); Campaign Finance Report of Deborah Markowitz, Dec. 16, 2002 (listing no expenses for value of office space, computers, utilities, basic office supplies, etc., or any outside legal or accounting services); Amended Campaign Finance Report of Deborah Markowitz, Oct. 29, 2002 (same); Campaign Finance Report of Deborah Markowitz, Dec. 18, 2000 (same). The actual spending by other proponents of Act 64 also belies their opinions as to the reasonableness of Act 64's limits. See supra, Part IV(b)(1)(C) (describing Act 64 proponents who exceeded its limits in past elections). 32 477 Deference to a legislative judgment is due when some minimal effort has been made by legislators to weigh the relevant factors and strike a minimally informed balance. There is no evidence of any such legislative effort with regard to Act 64's actual effect on political activity. 478 Even under my colleagues' legal theory, therefore, the Act's limits on expenditures must be struck down as well below any reasonable constitutional standard, and the limits on local party affiliates must be invalidated for the lack of any proffered justification. Such a ruling would leave the Vermont legislature in a position to deliberate on the full ramifications of its actions in considering new legislation but still free to pursue it. See Quill v. Vacco, 80 F.3d 716, 742 (2d Cir.1996) (Calabresi, J., concurring) (no court need or ought to make ultimate and immensely difficult constitutional decisions unless it knows that the state's elected representatives and executives — having been made to go, as it were, before the people — assert through their actions (not their inactions) that they really want and are prepared to defend laws that are constitutionally suspect), rev'd, 521 U.S. 793, 117 S.Ct. 2293, 138 L.Ed.2d 834 (1997); United States v. Then, 56 F.3d 464, 466 n. 1 (2d Cir.1995) (Calabresi, J., concurring) (when factual developments have made a law's prior justification constitutionally invalid, it is up to the legislature to decide whether to advance another state interest in support of that law) (citing Abele v. Markle, 342 F.Supp. 800, 810-11 n. 18 (D.Conn.1972) (Newman, J., concurring), vacated, 410 U.S. 951, 93 S.Ct. 1412, 35 L.Ed.2d 683 (1973)); Tunick v. Safir, 209 F.3d 67, 74 (2d Cir.2000) (implying that state suicide statute could have been interpreted not to ban assisted suicide because the New York Court of Appeals had never clarified, and the legislative history cast some doubt upon, the question of whether the New York ban on assisted suicide, first enacted in 1828, was ever meant to apply to a treating physician) (internal quotation marks omitted).