Court Opinion

ID: 9427847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:22:05.531122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:10.010340
License: Public Domain

Mb. Justice Powell,
with whom Mr. Justice Rehnquist joins, and with whom Mr. Justice Stewart joins as to Part I, dissenting.
The Court today continues the evisceration of patronage practices begun in Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S. 347 (1976). With scarcely a glance at almost 200 years of American political tradition, the Court further limits the relevance of political affiliation to the selection and retention of public employees. Many public positions previously filled on the basis of membership in national political parties now must be staffed in accordance with a constitutionalized civil service standard that will affect the employment practices of federal, state, and local governments. Governmental hiring practices long thought to be a matter of legislative arid executive discretion now will be subjected to judicial oversight. Today’s decision is an exercise of judicial lawmaking that, as The Chief Justice wrote in his Elrod dissent, “represents a significant intrusion into the area of legislative and policy concerns.” Id., at 375. I dissent.
*522I
The Court contends that its holding is compelled by the First Amendment. In reaching this conclusion, the Court largely ignores the substantial governmental interests served by patronage. Patronage is a long-accepted practice 1 that never has been eliminated totally by civil service laws and regulations. The flaw in the Court’s opinion lies not only in its application of First Amendment principles, see Parts II-IV, infra, but also in its promulgation of a new, and substantially expanded, standard for determining which governmental employees may be retained or dismissed on the basis of political affiliation.2
*523In Elrod v. Burns, three Members of the Court joined a plurality opinion concluding that nonpolieymaking employees could not be dismissed on the basis of political affiliation. 427 U. S., at 367 (opinion of Brennan, J., with whom White and Marshall, JJ., joined). Two Members of the Court joined an opinion concurring in the judgment and stating that nonpolicymaking, nonconfidential employees could not be so dismissed. Id., at 375 (opinion of Stewart, J., with whom Blackmun, J., joined). Notwithstanding its purported reliance upon the holding of Elrod, ante, at 512, n. 6, the Court today ignores the limitations inherent in both views. The .Court rejects the limited role for patronage recognized in the plurality opinion by holding that not all policymakers may be dismissed because of political affiliation. Ante, at 518-520. And the Court refuses to allow confidential employees to be dismissed for partisan reasons. Ante, at 520, n. 14; see ante, p. 520 (Stewart, J., dissenting). The broad, new standard is articulated as follows:
“[T]he ultimate inquiry is not whether the label ‘policymaker’ or ‘confidential’ fits a particular position; rather, the question is whether the hiring authority can demonstrate that party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved.” Ante, at 518.
The Court gives three examples to illustrate the standard. Election judges and certain executive assistants may be chosen on the basis of political affiliation; college football coaches may not. Ibid.3 And the Court decides in this case that *524party affiliation is not an appropriate requirement for selection of the attorneys in a public defender’s office because "whatever policymaking occurs in the public defender’s office must relate to the needs of individual clients and not to any partisan political interests.” Ante, at 519.
The standard articulated by the Court is framed in vague and sweeping language certain to create vast uncertainty. Elected and appointed officials at all levels who now receive guidance from civil service laws, no longer will know when political affiliation is an appropriate consideration in filling a position. Legislative bodies will not be certain whether they have the final authority to make the delicate line-drawing decisions embodied in the civil service laws. Prudent individuals requested to accept a public appointment must consider whether their predecessors will threaten to oust them through legal action.
One example at the national level illustrates the nature and magnitude of the problem created by today’s holding. The President customarily has considered political affiliation in removing and appointing United States attorneys. Given the critical role that these key law enforcement officials play in the administration of the Department of Justice, both Democratic and Republican Attorneys General have concluded, not surprisingly, that they must have the confidence and support of the United States attorneys. And political affiliation has been used as one indicator of loyalty.4
Yet, it would be difficult to say, under the Court’s standard, that “partisan” concerns properly are relevant to the performance of the duties of a United States attorney. This *525Court has noted that “ ‘[t]he office of public prosecutor is one which must be administered with courage and independence.’ ” Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U. S. 409, 423 (1976), quoting Pearson v. Reed, 6 Cal. App. 2d 277, 287, 44 P. 2d 592, 597 (1935). Nevertheless, I believe that the President must have the right to consider political affiliation when he selects top ranking Department of Justice officials. The President and his Attorney General, not this Court, are charged with the responsibility for enforcing the laws and administering the Department of Justice. The Court’s vague, overbroad decision may cast serious doubt on the propriety of dismissing United States attorneys, as well as thousands of other policymaking employees at all levels of government, because of their membership in a national political party.5
A constitutional standard that is both uncertain in its application and impervious to legislative change will now control selection and removal of key governmental personnel. Federal judges will now be the final arbiters as to who federal, state, and local governments may employ. In my view, the Court is not justified in removing decisions so essential to *526responsible and efficient governance from the discretion of legislative and executive officials.
II
The Court errs not only in its selection of a standard, but more fundamentally in its conclusion that the First Amendment prohibits the use of membership in a national political party as a criterion for the dismissal of public employees.6 In reaching this conclusion, the Court makes new law from inapplicable precedents. The Court suggests that its decision is mandated by the principle that governmental action may not “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. . . .” Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624, 642 (1943). The Court also relies upon the decisions in Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U. S. 593 (1972), and Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U. S. 589 (1967). Ante, at 514-515; see Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S., at 358-359 (opinion of Brennan, J.). But the propriety of patronage was neither questioned nor addressed in those cases.
Both Keyishian and Perry involved faculty members who were dismissed from state educational institutions because of their political views.7 In Keyishian, the Court reviewed a *527state statute that permitted dismissals of faculty members from state institutions for “treasonable or seditious” utterances or acts. The Court noted that academic freedom is “a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.” 385 U. S., at 603. Because of the ambiguity in the statutory language, the Court held that the law was unconstitutionally vague. The Court also held that membership in the Communist Party could not automatically disqualify a person from holding a faculty position in a state university. Id., at 606. In Perry, the Court held that the Board of Regents of a state university system could not discharge a professor in retaliation for his exercise of free speech. 408 U. S., at 598. In neither case did the State suggest that the governmental positions traditionally had been regarded as patronage positions. Thus, the Court correctly held that no substantial state interest justified the infringement of free speech. This case presents a question quite different from that in Keyishian and Perry.
The constitutionality of appointing or dismissing public employees on the basis of political affiliation depends upon the governmental interests served by patronage. No constitutional violation exists if patronage practices further sufficiently important interests to justify tangential burdening of First Amendment rights. See Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 25 (1976). This inquiry cannot be resolved by reference to First Amendment cases in which patronage was neither involved nor discussed. Nor can the question in this case be answered in a principled manner without identifying and weighing the governmental interest served by patronage.
Ill
Patronage appointments help build stable political parties by offering rewards to persons who assume the tasks necessary *528to the continued functioning of political organizations. “As all parties are concerned with power they naturally operate by placing members and supporters into positions of power. Thus there is nothing derogatory in saying that a primary function of parties is patronage.” J. Jupp, Political Parties 25-26 (1968). The benefits of patronage to a political organization do not derive merely from filling policymaking positions on the basis of political affiliation. Many, if not most, of the jobs filled by patronage at the local level may not involve policymaking functions.8 The use of patronage to fill such positions builds party loyalty and avoids “splintered parties and unrestrained factionalism [that might] do significant damage to the fabric of government.” Storer v. Brown, 415 U. S. 724, 736 (1974).
Until today, I would have believed that the importance of political parties was self-evident. Political parties, dependent in many ways upon patronage, serve a variety of substantial governmental interests. A party organization allows political candidates to muster donations of time and money necessary to capture the attention of the electorate. Particularly in a time of growing reliance upon expensive television advertisements, a candidate who is neither independently wealthy nor capable of attracting substantial contributions must rely upon party workers to bring his message to the voters.9 In contests for less visible offices, a candidate may have no efficient method of appealing to the voters unless he enlists the efforts of persons who seek reward through the patronage system. Insofar as the Court’s decision today *529limits the ability of candidates to present their views to the electorate, our democratic process surely is weakened.10
Strong political parties also aid effective governance after election campaigns end. Elected officials depend upon appointees who hold similar views to carry out their policies and administer their programs. Patronage — the right to select key personnel and to reward the party “faithful” — serves the public interest by facilitating the implementation of policies endorsed by the electorate.11 The Court’s opinion casts a shadow over this time-honored element of our system. It appears to recognize that the implementation of policy is a legitimate goal of the patronage system and that some, but not all, policymaking employees may be replaced on the basis of their political affiliation. Ante, at 518.12 But the Court *530does not recognize that the implementation of policy often depends upon the cooperation of public employees who do not hold policymaking posts. As one commentator has written: “What the Court forgets is that, if government is to work, policy implementation is just as important as policymaking. No matter how wise the chief, he has to have the right Indians to transform his ideas into action, to get the job done.” 13 The growth of the civil service system already has limited the ability of elected politicians to effect political change. Public employees immune to public pressure “can resist changes in policy without suffering either the loss of their jobs or a cut in their salary.” 14 Such effects are proper when they follow from legislative or executive decisions to withhold some jobs from the patronage system. But the Court tips the balance between patronage and nonpatronage positions, and, in my view, imposes unnecessary constraints upon the ability of responsible officials to govern effectively and to carry out new policies.
Although the Executive and Legislative Branches of Government are independent as a matter of constitutional law, effective government is impossible unless the two Branches cooperate to make and enforce laws. Over the decades of our national history, political parties have furthered — if not assured--a measure of cooperation between the Executive and *531Legislative Branches. A strong party allows an elected executive to implement his programs and policies by working with legislators of the same political organization. But legislators who owe little to their party tend to act independently of its leadership. The result is a dispersion of political influence that may inhibit a political party from enacting its programs into law.15 The failure to sustain party discipline, at least at the national level, has been traced to the inability of successful political parties to offer patronage positions to their members or to the supporters of elected officials.16
The breakdown of party discipline that handicaps elected officials also limits the ability of the electorate to choose wisely among candidates. Voters with little information about individuals seeking office traditionally have relied upon party affiliation as a guide to choosing among candidates. With the decline in party stability, voters are less able to blame or credit a party for the performance of its elected officials. Our national party system is predicated upon the assumption that political parties sponsor, and are responsible for, the performance of the persons they nominate for office.17
In sum, the effect of the Court’s decision will be to decrease the accountability and denigrate the role of our national political parties. This decision comes at a time when an increasing number of observers question whether our national political parties can continue to operate effectively.18 *532Broad-based political parties supply an essential coherence and flexibility to the American political scene. They serve as coalitions of different interests that combine to seek national goals. The decline of party strength inevitably will enhance the influence of special interest groups whose only concern all too often is how a political candidate votes on a single issue. The quality of political debate, and indeed the capacity of government to function in the national interest, suffer when candidates and officeholders are forced to be more responsive to the narrow concerns of unrepresentative special interest groups than to overarching issues of domestic and foreign policy. The Court ignores the substantial governmental interests, served by reasonable patronage. In my view, its decision will seriously hamper the functioning of stable political parties.
IV
The facts of this case also demonstrate that the Court’s decision well may impair the right of local voters to structure their government. Consideration of the form of local government in Rockland County, N. Y., demonstrates the antidemocratic effect of the Court’s decision.
The voters of the county elect a legislative body. Among the responsibilities that the voters give to the legislature is the selection of a county public defender. In 1972, when the county voters elected a Republican majority in the legislature, a Republican was selected as Public Defender. The Public Defender retained one respondent and appointed the other as Assistant Public Defenders. Not surprisingly, both respondents are Republicans. In 1976, the voters elected a majority of Democrats to the legislature. The Democratic majority, in turn, selected a Democratic Public Defender who replaced both respondents with Assistant Public Defenders approved by the Democratic legislators. Ante, at 509-510, and n. 5.
*533The voters of Rockland County are free to elect their public defender and assistant public defenders instead of delegating their selection to elected and appointed officials.19 Certainly the Court’s holding today would not preclude the voters, the ultimate “hiring authority,” from choosing both public defenders and their assistants by party membership. The voters’ choice of public officials on the basis of political affiliation is not yet viewed as an inhibition of speech; it is democracy. Nor may any incumbent contend seriously that the voters’ decision not to re-elect him because of his political views is an impermissible infringement upon his right of free speech or affiliation. In other words, the operation of democratic government depends upon the selection of elected officials on precisely the basis rejected by the Court today.
Although the voters of Rockland County could have elected both the public defender and his assistants, they have given their legislators a representative proxy to appoint the public defender. And they have delegated to the public defender the power to choose his assistants. Presumably the voters have adopted this course in order to facilitate more effective representative government. Of course, the voters could have instituted a civil service system that would preclude the selection of either the public defender or his assistants on the basis of political affiliation. But the continuation of the present system reflects the electorate’s decision to select certain public employees on the basis of political affiliation.
The Court’s decision today thus limits the ability of the voters of a county to structure their democratic government in the way that they please. Now those voters must elect both the public defender and his assistants if they are to fill governmental positions on a partisan basis.*20 Because voters *534certainly may elect governmental officials on the basis of party ties, it is difficult to perceive a constitutional reason for prohibiting them from delegating that same authority to legislators and appointed officials.
V
The benefits of political patronage and the freedom of voters to structure their representative government are substantial governmental interests that justify the selection of the assistant public defenders of Rockland County on the basis of political affiliation. The decision to place certain governmental positions within a civil service system is a sensitive political judgment that should be left to the voters and to elected representatives of the people. But the Court’s constitutional holding today displaces political responsibility with judicial fiat. In my view, the First Amendment does not incorporate a national civil service system. I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

 When Thomas Jefferson became the first Chief Executive to succeed a President of the opposing party, he made substantial use of appointment and removal powers. Andrew Jackson, the next President to follow an antagonistic administration, used patronage extensively when he took office. The use of patronage in the early days of our Republic played an" important role in democratizing American politics. Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S., at 378-379 (Powell, J., dissenting). President Lincoln’s patronage practices and his reliance upon the newly formed Republican Party enabled him to build support for his national policies during the Civil War. See E. McKitrick, Party Politics and the Union and Confederate War Efforts, in The American Party System 117, 131-133 (W. Chambers & W. Burnham eds. 1967). Subsequent patronage reform efforts were “concerned primarily with the corruption and inefficiency that patronage was thought to induce in civil service and the power that patronage practices were thought to give the ‘professional’ politicians who relied on them.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S., at 379 (Powell, J., dissenting). As a result of these efforts, most federal and state civil service employment was placed on a nonpatronage basis. Ibid. A significant segment of public employment has remained, however, free from civil service constraints.

 The Court purports to limit the issue in this case to the dismissal of public employees. See ante, at 513, n. 7. Yet the Court also states that “it is difficult to 'formulate any justification for tying either the selection or retention of an assistant public defender to his party affiliation.” Ante, at 520, n. 14. If this latter statement is not a holding of the Court, it at least suggests that the Court perceives no constitutional distinction between selection and dismissal of public employees.

 The rationale for the Court’s conclusion that election judges may be partisan appointments is not readily apparent. The Court states that “if a State’s election laws require that precincts be supervised- by two election judges of different parties, a Republican judge could be legitimately discharged solely for changing his party registration.” Ante, at 518. If the mere presence of a state law mandating political affiliation as a requirement for public employment were sufficient, then the Legisla*524ture of Rockland County could reverse the result of this case merely by passing a law mandating that political affiliation be considered when a public defender chooses his assistants. Moreover, it is not apparent that a State could demonstrate, under the standard approved today, that only a political partisan is qualified to be an impartial election judge.

 See Lemann, The Case for Political Patronage, The Washington Monthly, Dec. 1977, p. 8.

 The Court notes that prosecutors hold “broader public responsibilities” than public defenders. Ante, at 519, n. 13. The Court does not suggest, however, that breadth of responsibility correlates with the appropriateness of political affiliation as a requirement for public employment. Indeed, such a contention would appear to be inconsistent with the Court’s assertion that the “ultimate inquiry is not whether the label 'policymaker’ . . . fits a particular position. . . .” Ante, at 518.
I do not suggest that the Constitution requires a patronage system. Civil service systems have been designed to eliminate corruption and inefficiency not to protect the political beliefs of public employees. Indeed, merit selection systems often impose restrictions on political activities by public employees. D. Rosenbloom, Federal Service and the Constitution: The Development of the Public Employment Relationship 83-86 (1971); see CSC v. Letter Carriers, 413 U. S. 548 (1973). Of course, civil service systems further important governmental goals, including continuity in the operation of government. A strength of our system has been the blend of civil service and patronage appointments, subject always to oversight and change by the legislative branches of government.

 In my Elrod dissent, I suggested that public employees who lose positions obtained through their participation in the patronage system have not suffered a loss of First Amendment rights. 427 U. S., at 380-381. Such employees assumed the risks of the system and were benefited, not penalized, by its practical operation. But the Court bases its holding on the First Amendment and, accordingly, I consider the constitutional issue.

 Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624 (1943), did not involve public employment. In that case, the Court declared that a state statute compelling each public school student to pledge allegiance to the flag violated the First Amendment. Similarly, Wieman v. Updegrajf, 344 U. S. 183 (1952), Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U. S. 479 (1960), and Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U. S. 886 (1961), did not concern governmental attempts to hire or dismiss employees pursuant to an established patronage system. The Court also relies upon United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U. S. 75 (1947). Ante, at 515, n. 10. In that case, the Court upheld limitations *527on the political conduct of public employees that far exceed any burden on First Amendment rights demonstrated in this case.

 See E. Costikyan, Behind Closed Doors: Politics in the Public Interest 253-254 (1966).

 Television and radio enable well-financed candidates to go directly into the homes of voters far more effectively than even the most well-organized “political machine.” See D. Broder, The Party’s Over: The Failure of Politics in America 239-240 (1972).

 Patronage also attracts persons willing to perform the jobs that enable voters to gain easy access to the electoral process. In some localities, “[t]he parties saw that the polls were open when they should be, and that the voting machines worked.” Costikyan, Cities Can Work, Saturday Review, Apr. 4, 1970, pp. 19, 20. At a time when the percentage of Americans who vote is declining steadily, see Statistical Abstract of the United States 516 (1979), the citizen who distributes his party’s literature, who helps to register voters, or who transports voters to the polls on Election Day performs a valuable public service.

 In addition, political parties raise funds, recruit potential candidates, train party workers, provide assistance to voters, and act as a liaison between voters and governmental bureaucracies. Assistance to constituents is a common form of patronage. At the local level, political clubhouses traditionally have helped procure municipal services for constituents who often have little or no other access to public officials. M. Tolchin & S. Tolchin, To The Victor . . .: Political Patronage from the Clubhouse to the White House 19 (1971). Party organizations have been a means of upward mobility for newcomers to the United States and members of minority groups. See Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S., at 382, and n. 6 (Powell, J., dissenting); S. Lubell, The Future of American Politics 76-77 (1952).

 The reasoning of the Elrod plurality clearly permitted vestiges of patronage to continue in order to ensure that “representative government not be undercut by tactics obstructing the implementation of policies of the new administration. . . .” 427 U. S., at 367. But in view of the *530Court’s new holding that some policymaking positions may not be filled on the basis of political affiliation, ante, at 518, elected officials may find changes in public policy thwarted by policymaking employees protected from replacement by the Constitution. The official with a hostile or foot-dragging subordinate will now be in a difficult position. In order to replace such a subordinate, he must be prepared to prove that the subordinate’s “private political beliefs [will] interfere with the discharge of his public duties.” Ante, at 517.

 Peters, A Kind Word for the Spoils System, The Washington Monthly, Sept. 1976, p. 30.

 Tolchin & Tolchin, supra n. 11, at 72-73. See Costikyan, supra n. 8, at 353-354.

 Herbers, The Party’s Over for the Political Parties, The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 9, 1979, pp. 158, 175.

 See Costikyan, supra n. 8, at 252-253.

 In local elections, a candidate’s party affiliation may be the most salient information communicated to voters. One study has indicated that affiliation remains the predominant influence on voter choice in low-visibility elections such as contests for positions in the state legislature. See Murray & Vedlitz, Party Voting in Lower-Level Electoral Contests, 59 Soc. Sci. Q. 752, 756 (1979).

 See, e. g., W. Burnham, The 1976 Election: Has the Crisis Been Adjourned?, in American Politics and Public Policy 1, 19-22 (W. Burnham & M. Weinberg eds. 1978); Broder, supra n. 9; Herbers, supra n. 15, *532at 159; Pomper, The Decline of the Party in American Elections, 92 Pol. Sci. Q. 21, 40-41 (1977). See also n. 9, supra.

 In Florida, for example, the local public defender is elected. See Fla. Const., Art. 5, § 18; Fla. Stat. § 27.50 (1979).

 The Court’s description of the policymaking functions of a public defender’s office suggests that the public defender may no longer be chosen by the County Legislature on a partisan basis. Ante, at 519-520.