In the upcoming October 2007 session of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court will hear its first ballot access case since 1992. It is New York State Board of Elections v Lopez Torres, no. 06-766. The case concerns New York state’s extraordinarily difficult ballot access procedures for people who want to run for Delegate to party judicial nominating conventions. This will be the first time the U.S. Supreme Court has heard a case on primary ballot access petitions.
The state lost the case below, so it filed its briefs first, in May. Now, Lopez Torres and her allies have filed their briefs. Lopez Torres is represented by the Brennan Center, and by the law firms Jenner & Block and Arnold & Porter. Their joint brief for Lopez Torres is very strong. It effectively eviscerates the state’s claim that this is a political party rights case. Instead, as the brief makes clear, it is about a state statute that forces qualified political parties in New York to use a very undemocratic system for choosing nominees for seats on the State Supreme Court.
An amicus brief on Lopez Torres’ side was filed by Charles Hynes, who has been the District Attorney of Brooklyn for the last 15 years. It reveals how the current system (which makes it virtually impossible for anyone to get on the primary ballot for Delegate unless he or she is backed by county party leaders) has promoted extensive corruption. County party leaders use their power over Delegate Conventions to force judicial candidates, and incumbent judges, to hire their own children for prestigious patronage jobs.
Amici briefs on Lopez Torres’ side have also been filed by the City of New York, the New York State Bar Association, the New York city Bar Association, the Fund for Modern Courts, by President George H. W. Bush’s former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (John Dunne), by a group of former New York judges, by the American Judicature Society, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Campaign Legal Center, the Reform Institute, by two political scientists (Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein), by a group of law professors, by former Mayor Ed Koch, by the national ACLU, the New York State ACLU, the New York County Lawyers Association, the Asian American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Puerto Rican Bar Association, the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens, the Center for Law & Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, the Amistad Black Bar Association of Long Island, and the Rochester Black Bar Association. A few more amici briefs are expected.
To read Lopez Torres’ brief, see here. It is 73 pages long.