Case: Love v. Blanco

This is a case about the legality of a Louisiana statute, Act 282, that provided that a candidate for U.S. Senator or U.S. Representative who received a majority of votes on the first Saturday in October would not appear on the ballot on Federal Election Day. Federal Election Day is held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. On December 29, 2005, Plaintiff filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. Plaintiff was the father of a then-seventeen-year-old child who was turning eighteen-years-old on October 10, 2006. Plaintiff, in his capacity as Administrator of the Estate of his unemancipated minor child, sued Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, then-Governor of Louisiana, and Al Ater, then-Secretary of State of Louisiana, under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Represented by private counsel, Plaintiff sought declaratory and injunctive relief. He argued that Act 282 was unconstitutional because it made it such that regular congressional elections in Louisiana were held on dates earlier than the day mandated by federal law, which deprived his daughter of her federal statutory and constitutional rights.

Plaintiff filed his complaint on December 29, 2005. In his complaint, Plaintiff detailed the various federal law requirements for the timing of congressional elections. Specifically, 2 U.S.C. Section 7 proscribes the Federal Election Day for U.S. Congress Representatives as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in every even numbered year. Title 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Code requires that in U.S. Senate election years, regular election of U.S. Senators shall take place on the same Federal Election Day. The  Constitution provides that the right of citizens who are eighteen years of age or older to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of age. Further, LSA-RS Section 18:101(A) provides that every citizen who is at least eighteen years of age or will attain that age on or before the next election shall be eligible to register to vote, and any person age seventeen and who is otherwise qualified to vote may register to vote at any time prior to the first election at which he shall have attained the age of eighteen years old. Louisiana law also proscribes the date of primary elections, which shall be held on the first Saturday in October next preceding the date of the Federal Election Day. 

In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court found a Louisiana statute that provided that a "candidate who receives a majority of votes cast for an office in a primary is elected" was unconstitutional, and the Court ordered that state officials hold congressional "primary" elections on Federal Election Day, and any necessary run-off elections in December. However, Act 282 (the act at the subject of the lawsuit) provided that "[t]he candidates who qualify for each office of United States senator or representative in congress in the general election are those who received the two highest numbers of votes in the primary election." Under this statute, the "primary election" was the one held on the first Saturday of October. Act 282 also provided that a candidate for U.S. Senator or Representative who receives a majority of votes on the first Saturday in October will not appear on the ballot on Federal Election Day. According to Plaintiff, Act 282 effectively returned the state's scheme for electing U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives to the scheme that the Supreme Court rejected in 1997 because it permitted candidates to effectively win outright in the October primary if he or she secured a majority of the vote. While Act 282 stated that the candidate shall not be "declared elected" until Federal Election Day, the statute provided that such candidate's name shall not appear on the ballot on Federal Election Day. Plaintiff also pointed out that even if the October primary is not conclusive by reason of a failure of a candidate to obtain a majority, it narrows down the number of candidates so that a run-off election may be held on Federal Election Day, when 2 U.S.C. Section 8 requires that such run-off elections be held only after Federal Election Day. 

Per state statute, Louisiana planned to conduct "primary elections" for Representatives from each Congressional District (including the Sixth Congressional District in which Plaintiff and his daughter resided). Per Act 282, should any candidate for U.S. Representative win a majority of votes on October 7, 2006, "his name shall not appear on the ballot in the general election." Plaintiff's minor daughter's eighteenth birthday was on October 10, 2006, thus, after the date of the 2006 "primary election" but prior to Federal Election Day. Plaintiff therefore argued that Louisiana's election scheme whereby a candidate for U.S. Representative from the Sixth Congressional District who obtains a majority of the votes cast for the office in the "primary election" on October 7, 2006, will not have his name on the ballot in the "general election" on Federal Election Day would have the effect of denying his daughter the right to vote for U.S. Representative on Federal Election Day in 2006. Accordingly, Plaintiff requested injunctive relief in that the court declare Act 282 unconstitutional. 

Also on December 29, 2005, Plaintiff filed an application for a preliminary injunction and requested a consolidated hearing with a hearing scheduled on January 23, 2006 in a related case. Ultimately, on January 25, 2006, the court ordered that the action be terminated.

However, on March 20, 2006, in Plaintiff's related case (Civil Action No. 3:95-CV-788) the court declared that Act 282 violated 2 U.S.C. Section 7 and was therefore unconstitutional. The court permanently enjoined Defendants from enforcing Act 282 and held that all regular "primary" elections for U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative in Louisiana shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in the applicable even-numbered years. The court further held that in the event that a candidate in such an election shall receive a majority of votes cast for that office that candidate shall be elected, and in the event that none of the candidates for a particular office receives a majority of votes cast for that office, a run-off election will be held on the first Saturday in December following the November election.