Speight v. Gordon

582 F.Supp.3d 897

John B. SPEIGHT, Rex Arney, Robin Hurless, et al., Plaintiffs,

v.Wyoming Governor Mark GORDON, in his official capacity, Wyoming Republican State Central Committee, Wyoming Republican Party Chairman, and Wyoming Republican Party, Defendants.

Case No. 22-CV-0016-SWS

United States District Court, D. Wyoming.

Signed January 27, 2022

Patrick J. Crank, Crank Legal Group, Cheyenne, WY, for Plaintiffs.

Jay A. Jerde, Water & Natural Resources Division, Ryan T. Schelhaas, Wyoming Attorney General's Office, Cheyenne, WY, for Defendant Wyoming Governor.

Brian Claude Shuck, Law Office of Brian C. Shuck, Cheyenne, WY, for Defendants Wyoming Republican Party Chairman, Wyoming Republican State Central Committee.

ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER

Scott W. Skavdahl, United States District Judge

This motion comes before the Court on Plaintiff's Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction (ECF No. 6) and the related complaint (ECF No. 1), both filed on January 25, 2022. Defendants were given notice of the complaint and the motion (ECF No. 8), and Defendant Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon submitted his written response (ECF No. 14), as have Defendants Wyoming Republican State Central Committee and the Republican Party Chairman (ECF No. 20). The Court held a status conference on January 26, 2022 to discuss the temporary restraining order. (ECF No. 10.) Plaintiffs argue they have a likelihood of success on the merits but ignore Supreme Court precedent relevant to their case. Additionally, Plaintiffs have not demonstrated any irreparable harm. Having considered the Plaintiffs’ motion and complaint, the Defendants’ responses, and Plaintiffs’ reply (ECF No. 18), the Court finds the Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction should be DENIED.

Background

This case arises out of a dispute over filling a statewide elected position vacancy for the remainder of the elected term. On January 16, 2022, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow resigned from her position, leaving the position vacant. (ECF No. 1 at 10.) Pursuant to Wyoming Statute § 22-18-111 (2021), since the vacancy occurred after Balow's second year in office, the Wyoming governor must appoint a successor to fill the position for the remainder of the elected term, which ends January 2023. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 22-2-105(a)(ii) (2021) ; Wyo. Const. Art. 4, § 11.

This appointment process is at the heart of the dispute. As a "Major Political Party," the Wyoming Republican Party is governed by Wyoming Statute § 22-4-101, et seq. , which gives the Party a proportional number of committeemen and committeewomen. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 22-4-101(b). The proportional representation is decided by precinct¹ votes—for every 250 votes in a political precinct that go toward the political party, the precinct gets one committeeman and committeewoman. § 22-4-101(c). No political precinct has less than one committeeman and committeewoman, but the precincts may have up to as many committeemen and committeewomen as are proportionate to the votes. Id. The committeemen and committeewomen from each precinct make up the County Central Committee ("CCC"). § 22-4-101(b). The CCC then elects a county chairman, a state committeeman, and a state committeewoman. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 22-5-105 (2021) ; Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 22-4-110 (2021). The elected officials in these positions comprise the State Central Committee ("SCC"). The SCC overall is composed of the three elected representatives of each county along with a state committeeman, a state committeewoman, and a county chairman. § 22-4-110.

This leads to an interesting outcome, where the CCC is proportionate to the precincts and votes within its county, but the SCC for each county is comprised of only three members—the chairman, the committeeman, and the committeewoman—regardless of how many voters (or voters of a certain party) are in the county. See § 22-4-110. As a result, each county has equal numbers of representation on the Wyoming Republican Party SCC.

Laramie County, Wyoming, with a population of 100,512, receives the same three representative members as Niobrara County, Wyoming, with a population of only 2,422. However, raw population numbers are not the crux of the analysis—rather the important population for this case is the population of registered Republicans in each county. See Seergy v. Kings County Republican County Committee , 459 F.2d 308, 315 (2d Cir. 1972). As of January 1, 2022, in Niobrara County, there are 1,182 registered Republicans,² a total of 0.6% of the total percent of Wyoming registered Republicans. (ECF No. 20-2.) In contrast, Laramie County has 28,691 registered Republicans, making up 14.62% of the total percent of Wyoming registered Republicans. (Id. )

The Wyoming Republican Party SCC is made up of three elected officials from each county,³ plus the same three elected officials from a national committee, the State Party Chairman and the State Party Vice-Chairman, for a total of seventy-four votes on the SSC. (ECF No. 7 at 8.) While the Wyoming Republican Party bylaws are relatively silent on this process, the bylaws expressly state "[i]n any event, no member of the State Central Committee shall be able to exercise more than one vote." (2020 Bylaws of the Wyoming Republican Party, Art. V § 1, ECF No. 1-1 at 16.) Besides this statement, the bylaws do not require proportional voting, nor do the bylaws give any more specification on the process of filling vacancies for state elected officials. (See id. )

In the event of a vacancy in a state elected office past the two-year mark of a four-year term, the Wyoming governor appoints a temporary successor to serve the remainder of the term. § 22-18-111. The governor makes this appointment from a list of three nominees chosen by a SCC vote. § 22-18-11(a)(i). If the elected official represented a political party during their election, the governor may only choose nominees provided by the SCC for that party. (Id. ) For the Wyoming Republican Party, these nominees are chosen by election through the seventy-four voting members of the SCC. (ECF No. 1 at 10–11.) Once the SCC provides the three nominees to the governor, the governor must make a decision within five days. § 22-18-111(a)(i).

In this case, Superintendent Balow resigned on January 16, 2022. (ECF No. 1 at 10.) The SCC scheduled its vote to designate three nominees to replace the vacant superintendent seat on January 22, 2022. (ECF No. 10 at 11–12.) On January 20, 2022, Plaintiff Tom Lubnau sent a letter to Frank Eathorne, Chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party, and the entire Wyoming Republican Party asking for the scheduled vote to be conducted proportionally by county. (Id. at 12.) In this letter, Mr. Lubnau argued the vote was contrary to the Equal Protection Clause in the United States and Wyoming Constitutions. (ECF No. 1-2.) Mr. Lubnau requested the SCC follow the "one man, one vote" principle. (Id. )

At the meeting on January 22, Mr. Eathorne declined to conduct a proportional vote because "[t]he Wyoming Republican Party is a private entity, we are not conducting a public election[.]" (ECF No. 1 at 12.) The vote continued as planned, with each member of the SCC submitting one non-weighted vote. (Id. at 13.) The results showed Thomas Kelly received sixty-two votes; Marti Halverson received fifty-six votes; Brian Schroeder received fifty-two votes; Megan Degenfelder received nineteen votes; and Plaintiff David Northrup received seven votes. (ECF No. 20-1.) In accordance with § 22-18-111(a), the Committee submitted the list of three nominees (Mr. Kelly, Ms. Halverson, and Mr. Schroeder) to Governor Mark Gordon, who must make his decision on January 27, 2022. (ECF No. 7 at 2) (citing § 22-18-111(a)(i) ).

On January 25, 2022, Plaintiffs filed a complaint with this Court, arguing the process violated Wyoming voters’ constitutional rights. (ECF No. 1.) In conjunction with this complaint, Plaintiffs also filed a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction (ECF No. 6) asking this Court to prevent Governor Gordon from selecting a new Superintendent of Public Instruction on January 27, 2022. Plaintiffs argue "Wyoming statutes, as supplemented by Republican State Party Bylaws and as implemented by the party in selecting the three persons for this vacancy, violate their equal protection rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." (ECF No. 7 at 2.) The process for filling vacancies violates the "one man, one vote" principle integral to this country's electoral process. (Id. ) The vote to select three nominees should have been conducted with each county getting a vote proportional to the number of Republican votes in their county. (Id. )

Plaintiffs assert they are not making a facial constitutional challenge to the Wyoming statutes. (ECF No. 7 at 21.) While not explicitly stated, they appear to be challenging the Wyoming statutes, in conjunction with the Wyoming Republican Party bylaws, as applied to plaintiffs.⁴ (See id. ) Specifically, Plaintiffs seem to take issue with the bylaws requiring only one vote per State Central Committee member, arguing this prevents members from following the "one person, one vote" principle articulated in Baker v. Carr , 369 U.S. 186, 208, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). In other words, this requirement leads to an inequitable outcome where certain counties’ votes hold more weight. (ECF No. 1 at 15–16.)

In response, Defendants point to a seminal United States Supreme Court case, Rodriguez , to counter Plaintiffs’ argument. (ECF No. 14 at 6; ECF No. 19 at 11–12); Rodriguez v. Popular Democratic Party , 457 U.S. 1, 102 S.Ct. 2194, 72 L.Ed.2d 628 (1982). Defendants also argue this system to fill elected vacancies has been in place for sixty years, but Plaintiffs have only decided to challenge it two days before the Governor needed to appoint a replacement. (ECF...