United States Ninth Circuit
San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Political Action Comm. v. City of San Jose, 06-17001
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In a First and Fourteenth Amendment challenge to campaign contribution limits for elected city positions, summary judgment for plaintiff is vacated and the case remanded with instruction to dismiss, as federal courts must abstain where: 1) defendant Election Commission's investigation into plaintiff's violation of campaign contribution regulations is an ongoing state proceeding; 2) the ongoing proceeding implicates an important state interest in regulating local elections; 3) plaintiff is not barred from making its constitutional arguments in the state proceeding; and 4) the federal suit would effectively enjoin the state proceeding because plaintiff seeks injunction against defendant enforcing its municipal statute.
Appellate Information
- Argued 06/12/2008
- Decided 10/14/2008
- Published 10/14/2008
Judges
- GRABER, Circuit Judge:, Before: J. CLIFFORD WALLACE and SUSAN P. GRABER, Circuit Judges, and GEORGE P. SCHIAVELLI, District Judge.
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Jonathan Givner, Deputy City Attorney, San Francisco, CA; Sean P. Trende, Hunton & Williams LLP, Richmond, VA; Daniel R. Ortiz, University of Virginia Law School, Charlottesville, VA; and Deborah B. Caplan, Olson Hagel & Fishburn LLP, Sacramento, CA, for amici curiae.
- For Appellees:
- George Rios, Assistant City Attorney, and Lisa Herrick, Senior Deputy City Attorney, San Jose, CA, for the defendants-appellants., James R. Sutton and Gabe Camarillo, The Sutton Law Firm, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellees.