Court Opinion

ID: 9456303
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:48:24.927604+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:55.467422
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
I would sustain the district court’s dismissal of the complaint, but on a ground different from those assigned by the district judge. In my opinion this case presents a non justiciable controversy in the sense that it involves a “political question” — one that should be dealt with by the state legislature and not by the courts.
A distinction should be drawn in this area between the rights of voters and candidates for public office to be given equal treatment by the state in the “mechanical aspects of the election process,” to use Judge Fairchild’s apt phrase, and remedies for alleged abuses of the persuasion or electioneering aspects of the process. For example, in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962), it was held that the citizens of a state suffer a “debasement of their votes” and thereby a denial of equal *272protection of the laws when the state legislature refuses or fails to allocate its legislative representation on an equal basis among the voters of the state. In Moore v. Ogilvie, 394 U.S. 814, 89 S.Ct. 1493, 23 L.Ed.2d 1 (1968), the Supreme Court held that a state may not discriminate against the residents of the more populous sections of a state in favor of the less populous by requiring a rigid, arbitrary number of signatures from each county on petitions for independent candidates for political office. In Weisberg v. Powell, 417 F.2d 388 (7th Cir. 1969), this court had before it a case concerning an arbitrary and discriminatory pi’ocedure adopted by the Illinois Electoral Board in the placement on the ballot of candidates to a state constitutional convention. All three cases, which are illustrative of the decisions in this area, dealt with procedures enacted by state legislatures relating to the democratic elective process directed to attain representative government.
In the instant case we are not asked to apply the equal protection test to a legislative enactment governing the elective process or even to a deviation from such an enactment by those statutorily charged to carry out its mandate. Rather, we are asked to go one step further and hold that the conduct of a public official is constitutionally proscribed when he allegedly requires employees whom he appoints and can summarily discharge to contribute money and “public” time to the candidacy of those favored by him.
In Baker v. Carr, the Supreme Court recognized that there may be areas of activity relating to the elective process that are not justiciable because of the “inappropriateness of the subject matter for judicial consideration.” The Court then set forth the applicable test: “In the instance of non justiciability, consideration of the cause is not wholly and immediately foreclosed; rather, the Court’s inquiry necessarily proceeds to the point of deciding whether the duty asserted can be judicially identified and its breach judicially determined, and whether protection for the right asserted can be judicially molded.” 369 U.S. at 198, 82 S.Ct. at 700. When this test is applied to the claims made by plaintiffs, it is apparent that the instant case should be classified as non justiciable. Assuming proof of the claims, it is not difficult to contemplate the problems facing the district court in molding a proper remedy and, perhaps more important, with its enforcement.
I agree with the observation made by defendants that the relief requested is tantamount to asking the court to enlarge the Federal Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 7321 et seq., to encompass the political activity of local government employees. Whether coverage should be extended to such employees as a matter of public policy is not the question. The question is whether a federal court should attempt to formulate “judicially discoverable and manageable standards,” 1 relating to such activity and whether it should be called on to mold a piecemeal remedy by injunctive decree.
In my judgment this case presents issues of which the courts should not take cognizance. It is a matter that should be left to the legislature.

. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 217, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962).