United States Ninth Circuit

In an action brought by website owners against the secretary of state arising from their operation of websites which included certain "vote-swapping" mechanisms during the highly-contested 2000 presidential elections, summary judgment for the secretary is affirmed in part and reversed in part as: 1) contrary to a ruling below, the case was not moot; 2) the secretary violated plaintiffs' First Amendment rights as his actions in relation to the constitutionally protected mechanisms and related communications were not sufficiently tailored to advance the state's legitimate interests in preventing election fraud and corruption, and perhaps in avoiding the subversion of the Electoral College; but 3) nevertheless, the secretary was entitled to qualified immunity from damages because the constitutionality of halting vote swapping was not clearly established in 2000.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/18/2007
• Decided 08/06/2007
• Published 08/06/2007

Judges

• FISHER, Circuit Judge:, Before:  RAYMOND C. FISHER and RICHARD R. CLIFTON, Circuit Judges, and RICARDO MARTINEZ, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Peter J. Eliasberg (argued) and Mark D. Rosenbaum, ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, and Lisa J. Danetz and Brenda Wright, Demos:  A Network for Ideas & Action, Boston, MA, for the appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Stacy Boulware Eurie, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Catherine M. Van Aken, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Diana L. Cuomo, Deputy Attorney General, and Zackery P. Morazzini, Deputy Attorney General (argued), Sacramento, CA, for the appellees.