Justia Election Law Opinion Summaries

Two petitioners sought review of the Attorney General's certified ballot title for Initiative Petition 11 (2014). Among them, petitioners advanced a host of arguments asserting various inadequacies of the ballot title. After careful review, the Supreme Court found the ballot title did not substantially comply with ORS 250.035(2). Therefore, the Court referred the ballot title to the Attorney General for modification.View "Buehler v. Rosenblum" on Justia Law

Appellant Green Mountain Future (GMF) appealed the grant of summary judgment, which found that it was a political action committee (PAC) and violated a number of provisions of the Vermont campaign finance laws. GMF argued the trial court erred in not applying a narrowing construction created by the U.S. Supreme Court in "Buckley v. Valeo," (424 U.S. 1 (1976)), to the definition of a PAC under Vermont campaign finance laws, and that without that construction the registration and disclosure laws are unconstitutional under the overbreadth doctrine of the First Amendment and the vagueness doctrine of the Fourteenth Amendment. The State cross-appealed the $10,000 civil penalty assigned by the trial court, asserting that that court abused its discretion by misapplying certain factors and imposing a penalty for only one of GMF's violations. This case largely turned on the scope and continuing vitality of the "magic words" that GMF argued were required by "Buckley." GMF argued that its advertisements were purely issue advocacy and did not seek to affect the outcome of an election, in this case for Governor of Vermont. The State argued that GMF's advertisements were transparently employed to defeat the candidacy of Brian Dubie for Governor, although they did not state so explicitly. The Supreme Court held that the "magic words" were not required to make the applicable campaign finance statute constitutional. The Court affirmed the trial court's decision on summary judgment and the civil penalty, except that it remanded for reconsideration of the penalty for the violation of the identification requirement.View "Vermont v. Green Mountain Future" on Justia Law

In 2011, the La Plata Town Council passed four resolutions, including an annexation resolution acquiring a tract of land. Several citizens of La Plata subsequently published a petition to refer the Council's annexation resolution to referendum. The town manager declared that sufficient signatures had been submitted. As such, the annexation resolution was suspended and all four resolutions were referred to referendum. Several referendum opponents filed a petition for judicial review of the manager's report validating the signatures and advancing the referendum to a vote. The circuit court judge ruled in favor of the referendum opponents, holding, inter alia, that although the petition for referendum presented foremost a land annexation resolution, the inclusion of the additional resolutions invalidated the petition. The Court of Appeals vacated the opinion and remanded, holding (1) where the petition for referendum contained legislative enactments that were collateral to the land annexation resolution but did not obfuscate the subject matter of the petition for referendum, the additions do not invalidate the petition; and (2) the town manager acted within his authority when he published Town policies for the validation and verification of signatures for referendum.View "Town of La Plata v. Faison-Rosewick LLC" on Justia Law