7th Circuit Affirms District Court Holding Throwing Out Marion County's Judicial Election Process As Unconstitutional

A 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel today affirmed a federal district court ruling by Judge Richard Young holding the state law under which Marion County's superior court judges are elected is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteen Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. That state law made the election of judges in Marion County the only jurisdiction in the state where primary voters are not allowed to cast votes for as many candidates that are to be elected in the general election for judicial races, or any other political office for that matter.

Common Cause brought a lawsuit contesting the law's constitutionality since it effectively gives general election voters no right to choose who they wish to serve as superior court judges; rather, the two major political parties' voters get to decide in the primary election who one-half of those elected judges in any given election will be. There is no possibility of either of the major parties' judicial candidates losing a general election, except in the very unlikely event a third-party candidate could win more votes than one of the major parties' candidates, a fete that has never occurred in the history of the law.

The 7th Circuit agreed with the district court's analysis that concluded the state law severely burdened the right to vote without justifying the state's interest in: ensuring even representation and the supposed impartiality that accompanies that even representation; holding down the costs of judicial elections; and ensuring stability and public confidence in the judiciary. The opinion relegated to a footnote discussion of Marion County's byzantine system of slating candidates under which judicial candidates are shaken down by party leaders to pay a large slating fee as a condition to receiving the party's endorsement in a primary election. Judicial candidates are asked to sign a pledge not to run in the primary if the party chooses not to slate the candidate at its party convention. Non-slated candidates virtually are rarely successfully in contesting slated candidates in a primary election.

Today's 3-panel opinion was authored by Judge Theresa Springman and joined by Judge Michael Kanne and Jude Lana Rovner. The ball is now back in Judge Young's court to finalize his permanent injunction enjoining Indiana election officials from enforcing the state statute applicable only to Marion County judicial elections. In the absence of a new law, both parties will be required to nominate the amount of candidates to be elected in the general election at the next primary election at which superior court candidates are nominated.