Court Opinion

ID: 6940562
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-24 01:02:01.301264+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:07:40.496514
License: Public Domain

DENNIS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution establishes the power and the duty of each state legislature to prescribe “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives,” subject to the power of the Congress to “at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.” Thus, except to the extent that Congress acts to change or supplement state laws, the States retain broad authority to regulate elections under the Times, Places and Manner Clause. It cannot be doubted that the Clause invests each state legislature with the “authority to provide a complete code for congressional elections, not only as to times and places, but in relation to notices, registration, supervision of voting, protection of voters, prevention of fraud and corrupt practices, counting of votes, duties of inspectors and canvassers, and making and publication of election returns! ].” Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355, 366, 52 S.Ct. 397, 399, 76 L.Ed. 795 (1932).
This view is confirmed by the second clause of article 1, § 4, which provides that “the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations,” with the single exception stated. The phrase “such regulations” plainly refers to regulations of the same general character that the legislature of the State is authorized to prescribe with respect to congressional elections. In exercising this power, the Congress may supplement these state regulations or may substitute its own. It may impose additional penalties for the violation of the state laws or provide independent sanctions. It “has a general supervisory power over the whole subject.” [Citations omitted.] But this broad authority is conferred by the constitutional provision now under consideration, and is exercised by the Congress in making “such regulations”; that is, regulations of the sort which, if there be no overruling action by the Congress, may be provided by the Legislature of the state upon the same subject.
Id. at 366-367, 52 S.Ct. at 399. See also, Roudebush v. Hartke, 405 U.S. 15, 24-25, 92 S.Ct. 804, 810-11, 31 L.Ed.2d 1 (1972); (“Unless Congress Acts, Art. I, § 4, empowers the States to regulate the conduct of senatorial elections.”); Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724, 730, 94 S.Ct. 1274, 1279, 39 L.Ed.2d 714 (1974) (“[] Art I, § 4, cl 1, authorizes the States to prescribe ‘[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives.’”); United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 311, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 1035-36, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941) (“[T]he states are given, and in fact exercise, a wide discretion in the formulation of a system for the choice by the people of representatives in Congress.”)
Congress, in deference and respect to the states, has been slow to exercise the powers expressly conferred upon it in relation to elections by the fourth section of the first article of the Constitution. See, “The Ku-Klux Cases.” Ex Parte Yarbrough et al., 110 U.S. 651, 660-662, 4 S.Ct. 152, 156-58, 28 L.Ed. 274 (1884). It was not until 1842 that Congress took any action under the Times, Places and Manner Clause by providing that each member of Congress should be elected by a separate district, composed of contiguous territory. 5 St. 491. Id. Thirty years afterwards, in an act to apportion representatives to Congress among the several states according to the ninth census, Congress provided for the first time a regulation for the time of holding elections of representatives.
*1033The Act of Feb. 2, 1872, ch. 11. §§ 3 and 4, 17 Stat 28, 29, in pertinent parts, provides:
Sec. 3. That the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six, is hereby fixed and established as the day, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, for the election of Representatives and Delegates to the forty-fifth Congress; and the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every second year thereafter, is hereby fixed and established as the day for the election, in each of said States and territories, of Representatives and delegates to the Congress commencing on the fourth day of March next thereafter.
Sec. 4. That if, upon trial, there shall be a failure to elect a Representative or Delegate in Congress in any State, District, or Territory, upon the day here by fixed and established for such election, or if, after any such election, a vacancy shall occur in any such State, District, or Territory, from death, resignation, or otherwise, an election shall be held to fill any vacancy caused by such failure, resignation, death, or otherwise, at such time as is or may be provided by law for filling vacancies in the State or Territory in which the same may occur.
In substance, the same provisions have been continued in the present federal statutes regulating the time of holding elections for Representatives. 2 U.S.C. § 7 provides that the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election in each of the states and territories. 2 U.S.C. § 8 provides that the time for holding elections for Representative to fill a vacancy, whether such vacancy is caused by a failure to elect at the time prescribed by law, or by the death, resignation, or incapacity of a person elected, may be prescribed by the laws of the several states and territories respectively.
The Louisiana laws prescribing the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives provide for “open” primary and general elections. All qualified voters may vote for candidates in primary and general elections without regard to the voter’s party affiliation or lack of it, and all candidates who qualify for a primary or general election may be voted on without regard to the candidate’s party affiliation or lack of it. La.R.S. 18:401(B). The times for the elections are fixed as follows: (a) The primary election is held on the first Saturday in October next preceding the date of the general election, La.R.S. 18:1272(A); and (b) the general election is held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in every even numbered year, i.e., on the federal election day. La.R.S. 18:1272(B). The Louisiana laws also provide that a candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast in the primary election “is elected.” La.R.S. 18:511(A).
The plaintiffs contend that the Louisiana election laws are unconstitutional because they (a) allow a possibility that a candidate for Representative will be elected by receiving a majority of votes in the primary election; (b) and are thus contrary to the federal statute which requires that a Representative be elected on the federal election day, which Louisiana designates as the general election day.
The Supremacy Clause, Art. V, cl. 2 of the United States Constitution, provides that:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
The United States Supreme Court has developed a doctrine of preemption for deciding when a state law or constitution, in whole or in part, is “contrary” to the United States Constitution, or a valid federal law or treaty, made in pursuance thereof, that requires the state provision to yield to the federal. The principal precepts comprising this doctrine were summarized recently by the court in Northwest Central Pipeline Corporation v. State Corporation, Commission of Kansas, 489 U.S. 493, 509, 109 S.Ct. 1262, 1273, 103 L.Ed.2d 509 (1989):
*1034Congress has the power under the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution to pre-empt state law. Determining whether it has exercised this power requires that we examine congressional intent. In the absence of explicit statutory language signaling an intent to pre-empt, we infer such intent where Congress has legislated comprehensively to occupy an entire field of regulation, leaving no room for the States to supplement federal law, Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218, 67 S.Ct. 1146, 91 L.Ed. 1447 (1947), or where the state law at issue conflicts with federal law, either because it is impossible to comply with both, Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 142-143, 83 S.Ct. 1210, 1217-1218, 10 L.Ed.2d 248 (1963), or because the state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of congressional objectives, Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67, 61 S.Ct. 399, 404, 85 L.Ed. 581 (1941). See Schneidewind v. ANR Pipeline Co., 485 U.S. 293, 299-300, 108 S.Ct. 1145, 1150-1151, 99 L.Ed.2d 316 (1988); Louisiana Public Service Comm’n v. FCC, 476 U.S. 355, 368-369, 106 S.Ct. 1890, 1898-1899, 90 L.Ed.2d 369 (1986); Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Comm’n, 461 U.S. 190, 203-204, 103 S.Ct. 1713, 1721-1722, 75 L.Ed.2d 752 (1983).
Applying the preemption precepts to the Louisiana laws prescribing the times, places and manner of electing Representatives, it is clear that, under the supremacy clause, the state’s laws are not contrary to the federal statutes that partially regulate the same subjects. Obviously there is no explicit statutory language signaling an intent to pre-empt, and we cannot infer an intention to occupy the entire field of election regulation because Congress has not legislated comprehensively on the subject. The plaintiffs present no argument to this effect but contend that the state law at issue conflicts with the federal law, either because it is impossible to comply with both or because the state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of congressional objectives.
In order to demonstrate that it is impossible to harmonize or to comply with both the state and federal laws the plaintiffs advance an esoteric interpretation of the federal statutes that is not supported by either the scant legislative history or the previous judicial understanding of the those laws and the Constitution. They argue that it was the congressional intent in enacting the predecessor to 2 U.S.C. §§ 7 and 8 to require each state to adopt regulations for electing Representatives that would always result in a contested election for each seat on the federal election day, or at least guarantee that there would be an opportunity for a candidate to qualify for one. Therefore, they contend that the state’s open primary and general election laws are totally incompatible with the federal law because they have failed more often than not to produce contested elections for Representatives on the federal election day.
The meager legislative history tends to show a congressional aim to establish the federal election day as a center of gravity to prevent the calendrical dispersion of independent state congressional elections. But it does not indicate an intention to prevent variation among the states in the manner of election so long as each election scheme relates to the federal election day by using it either as the primary or general congressional election day. The few remarks by Senators Butler and Thurman express concern over each state’s autonomous power to carry out completely independent elections of Representatives and Presidential electors in any month of the year. They feared that under such an undisciplined regime there would be undue influence upon outcomes by strategic timing of elections and the lack of any semblance of uniformity. See majority opinion p. 1029, n. 3, and p. 1030. However, their remarks evince no concern over the fact that primaries closely linked to the proposed federal election day might fail to materialize into contested elections on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November. From the sparse legislative history one can only infer a legislative objective of rough uniformity by tethering each state’s congressional election scheme to the federal election day; the congressional record does not reflect an overweening desire for contested Representative *1035elections in each district on every federal election day.
Like its successor, the Louisiana party primary system that preceded the current open primary and general election system, more often than not failed to produce contested elections on the federal election day.1 The plaintiffs have not supplied any statistics by which we may compare the open primary to the party primary and other systems. However, during the last decade of the old regime, out of a total of 44 Senatorial and Representative elections only 20 resulted in contested elections on the general election day. See, Louisiana Almanac 1995-1996, p. 458-459. During its entire existence the party primary system probably resulted proportionately in even fewer actual contests on the federal election day. In United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941) the Supreme Court observed:
Pursuant to the authority given by § 2 of Article I of the Constitution, and subject to the legislative power of Congress under § 4 of Article I, and other pertinent provisions of the Constitution, the states are given, and in fact exercise a -wide discretion in the formulation of a system for the choice by the people of representatives in Congress. In common with many other states Louisiana has exercised that discretion by setting up machinery for the effective choice of party candidates for representative in Congress by primary elections and by its laws it eliminates or seriously restricts the candidacy at the general election of all those who are defeated in the primary.
******
[T]he practical operation of the primary law in otherwise excluding from the ballot on the general election the names of candidates rejected at the primary is such as to impose serious restrictions upon the choice candidates by the voters save by voting at the primary election. In fact, as alleged in the indictment, the practical operation of the primary in Louisiana, is and has been since the primary election was established in 1900 to secure the election of the Democratic primary nominee for the Second Congressional District of Louisiana.2
* * * * * *
Here, even apart from the circumstance that the Louisiana primary is made by law an integral part of the procedure of choice, the right to choose a representative is in fact controlled by the primary because, as is alleged in the indictment, the choice of candidates at the Democratic primary determines the choice of the elected representative.
Id. at 311, 313-314, 318-319, 61 S.Ct. at 1035-36,1036-37,1039.
Nevertheless, the plaintiffs concede that “[pjrior to the enactment of the open primary regime in 1978, Louisiana’s Congressional election system complied with the Federal Election Day Statutes.” Appellants’ Brief at p. 32. Accordingly, they argue that this court should strike down the open primary law as it applies to Congressional elections and “revive Louisiana’s pre-1978 election system for Congressional elections to the extent practicable because the pre-1978 election system is ‘the only valid expression of *1036the legislative intent.’ Frost, 278 U.S. at 526-27, 49 S.Ct. at 239.” Id. This concession and Congress’s refusal during the past century to abolish or alter state party primary regulations casts grave doubt on Appellants’ argument that it was Congress’s intent by the Federal Election Day laws to insure that contested Congressional elections, or the opportunity to qualify for them, take place in every district on each federal election day. Because it is upon this erroneous interpretation of the Federal Election Day laws that appellants rely to show that the state’s open election laws are contrary thereto and that it is impossible to comply with both, their argument in this respect is without merit.
Appellants and the majority find significance also in the fact-that La.R.S. 18:511(A) provides that “[a] candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast for an office in a primary election is elected.” Because the Federal Election Day laws do not necessarily preclude a candidate from being declared elected after receiving a majority of the votes in the open primary, I do not believe this provision is contrary to the federal law. However, if the majority concludes that this provision alone prevents the open elections laws from passing Supremacy Clause muster, it would be a simple matter for this court to enjoin such a declaration that a congressional candidate is elected until the federal election day, rather than declaring the whole law unconstitutional in its application to Congressional elections.
Nor is the state’s open elections law contrary to the Federal Election Day laws because the state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of congressional objectives. 2 U.S.C. § 7 was enacted, the Supreme Court has observed, “to remedy more than one evil arising from the election of members of Congress occurring at different times in the different States.” Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651, 661, 4 S.Ct. 152, 157, 28 L.Ed. 274 (1884). But those evils unduly benefiting certain states and political parties and unnecessarily burdening voters and politicians, Cong.Globe, 42nd Cong., 2d Sess. 141 (1871) (remarks of Senator Butler), are not perpetuated by the current state open elections laws any more, if at all, than by the previous party primary laws that appellants wish us to revive. As noted above, the legislative history indicates that the evil perceived by Congress at that time was the unbridled power of the states to independently arrange their election dates in a haphazard and pernicious manner completely untethered to a federally prescribed national election day. Although the present law does impose the burden of double elections on employed voters, so did the old party primary law and so does virtually every other election system. The passage of time, however, “has mitigated those burdens to the extent that “the poor laboring man” no longer “loses his day’s work” by going to the polls.” Id. See Busbee v. Smith, 549 F.Supp. 494, 524 (D.D.C.1982). Improvements of registration and election laws have greatly reduced the danger of a voter crossing state lines to vote in more than one Congressional district election. The advent of polling coupled with the instantaneity of modern media coverage has largely super-ceded whatever effects the outcome of a congressional primary in one state may have on an election in another.

. For much of the history of the electoral party primary, Louisiana, like the rest of the South, was a one-party state in which general elections meant little. Paul Grosser, "Political Parties.” LOUISIANA POLITICS; FESTIVAL IN A LABYRINTH 257 (1982). See also, United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 314 n. 2, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 1037 n. 2, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941). "Since the end of Reconstruction, the Republican party in Louisiana had served as little more than a nominal element in state politics. The domination of the Democratic party was so pervasive that victory in a Democratic primary invariably meant election.” Bennett Wall, LOUISIANA; A HISTORY 2nd Ed. 362 (1990). The Republicans only fielded candidates on an "episodic” basis, and did not elect a member of Congress (after Reconstruction) until 1972. Grosser, supra at 257-8. During all of those decades in which many states held general elections which were often uncontested and usually mere formalities, Congress never chose to act to require the de facto determinative election to be held on federal election day.

- For a discussion of the practical effect of the primary in controlling or restricting election of candidates at general elections, see, Hasbrouck, Party Government in the House of Representatives (1927) 172, 176, 177; Merriam and Overacker, Primary Elections (1928) 267-269; Stoney, Suffrage in the South; 29 Survey Graphic, 163, 164.