United States Tenth Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action challenging the validity of Oklahoma's ban on non-resident petition circulators under the constitutional First Amendment, Privileges and Immunities Clause, and Commerce Clause, a judgment against plaintiffs is reversed where the ban on nonresident circulators does not survive strict scrutiny analysis because it is not sufficiently tailored to further Oklahoma's compelling interest in protecting and policing both the integrity and the reliability of its initiative process.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/18/2008
• Published 12/19/2008

Judges

• MURPHY, Circuit Judge., Before MURPHY, McKAY, and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Edward D. Greim, Graves Bartle & Marcus LLC, Kansas City, MO (Todd P. Graves, Graves Bartle & Marcus LLC, Kansas City, MO;  Michael Salem, Salem Law Offices, Norman, OK;  and Stephen M. Hoersting, Esq., Vice President, Center for Competitive Politics, Alexandria, VA, with him on the briefs), for Plaintiffs-Appellants., William R. Maurer, Institute for Justice, Seattle, WA, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Plaintiffs-Appellants., Michael E. Rosman and Michelle A. Scott, Center for Individual Rights, Washington, D.C., filed an amicus brief for American Civil Rights Coalition in support of Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Gregory Thomas Metcalfe, Assistant Attorney General, Oklahoma Attorney General's Office (Martha R. Kulmacz, Assistant Attorney General, Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, and Sandy Rinehart, Senior Assistant Attorney General, with him on the brief), Oklahoma City, OK, for Defendants-Appellees.