29. Which of the following constitutional provisions would be most helpful to the new political party as a basis for attacking the constitutionality of this statute?

The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process and equal protection of the law. The Equal Protection Clause provides that «no state shall make or enforce any law which shall. .. deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.» Certain fundamental rights are protected under the Constitution. If they are denied to everyone, it is a substantive due process problem. If they are denied to some individuals but not others, it is an equal protection problem. The right to vote is considered fundamental.

Related to the right to vote is the right of a person to be a candidate, and of members of a political party to place their candidate on the ballot. Candidate eligibility rights may not, of course, violate any other independent constitutional protection. Under certain circumstances, restrictions on the ability of people to be candidates may violate the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause. Such regulations are judged on a sliding scale of strict scrutiny. Thus, to be valid, a government action must be necessary to protect a compelling state interest.

A state may require candidates to show reasonable support (signatures or votes) to qualify to have their names placed on the ballot. Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U.S. 189 (1986). Many states also require candidates to be affiliated with a political party in order to obtain a place on the ballot. States may, in order to keep ballots from becoming confusingly large, require parties (or independent candidacies) to show a significant amount of community support, but the restrictions may not be so great that minority parties or independent candidates have no realistic chance of getting on the ballot. The court should generally take into account the actual historical success or failure that minor parties have had in getting on the ballot.

States may not charge candidates a fee that results in making it impossible for indigent people to run for office. The Court has held that a state may not charge a candidate a filing fee that he is incapable of paying unless it gives him alternative means of getting on the ballot. See Lubin v. Panish, 415 U.S. 709 (1974).

The First Amendment provides: «Congress shall make no law. .. abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. .. .» These rights, in addition to the «freedom of association,» are often grouped together as «freedom of expression.» These prohibitions have only been made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Thirteenth Amendment provides that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States.

The Fifteenth Amendment is a limitation on both the states and the federal government. It prohibits any government from denying any citizen the right to vote on account of race or color. As indicated above, the Fifteenth Amendment contains an Enabling Clause that allows Congress to adopt legislation protecting the right to vote from discrimination.

C is correct. The Fourteenth Amendment offers the best grounds for challenging this statute because it prohibits states from infringing upon a person's fundamental rights, which includes the right to vote. In this case, strict scrutiny requires that the governmental action be necessary to protect a compelling state interest because it impacts the fundamental right to vote by way of imposing candidacy requirements. The new political party is made up of members of racial minority groups who have historically not had successful access to the ballot as candidates. As an independent third party, they face a $1,000 filing fee, which is ten times higher than the two major parties' fee of $100. Moreover, this new party has to submit petitions signed by at least 3% of the voters who actually cast ballots for the office of governor in the last state election. Although the state's purpose behind the filing requirements includes limiting the ballot size and financing the election costs, the limited access this new party has to the ballot must be necessary to further a compelling interest. The Fourteenth Amendment protections of the right to run for office provide the strongest basis for challenging the constitutionality of the statute because of the high $1,000 filing fee and demand for petitions from 3% of previous gubernatorial voters to show support.

A is incorrect. The First Amendment does protect the freedom of association, which is related to the issues in this case. However, this is not the strongest basis for demonstrating the statute's unconstitutionality because the First Amendment was only made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, rendering it a better basis for relief.

B is incorrect. The Thirteenth Amendment was passed to eradicate slavery of Black people and may be invoked to combat the badge incident to slavery that exists still today. The statute in this case, although admittedly affecting members of minority racial groups, is a classification based on political party. The new party may include individuals from various minority groups, not just Black people. As such, this is not the strongest or most applicable basis for challenging it.

D is incorrect. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits states (and the federal government) from denying any citizen the right to vote on account of race or color. As stated above, the classification, in this case, is based on a political party, not race. Therefore, this is also not the strongest basis for challenging the statute.