Court Opinion

ID: 9462107
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:32:21.022572+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:24.727971
License: Public Domain

WEBSTER, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur in Parts I and III of the opinion, but I respectfully dissent from the holding in Part II.
I cannot agree that supporters of a particular candidate form a sufficiently discrete class upon which to predicate federal jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3). Race is not involved in this contest; Indian supporters of one group of political candidates bring this action against Indian supporters of another. The holding in Part II of the majority opinion permits a non-insular, mutable, amorphous group to satisfy the alternative requirement in Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 102, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1971), that “there must be some racial, or perhaps otherwise class-based, invidiously discriminatory animus behind the conspirators’ action.” (Emphasis added.)
Taken to its logical extension this holding grants federal jurisdiction to any group of supporters of a local candidate who claim they were purposefully victimized by their opponents in state or local elections. Thus is introduced into our system a “general federal tort law” feared by Justice Stewart, author of Griffin, 403 U.S. at 102, 91 S.Ct. 1790.
Acceptance of my view on this point would not leave the plaintiffs without a remedy. See Point III of the majority opinion.