MacDougall v. Green
Headline: Court affirms denial of emergency order and allows Illinois to enforce 25,000-signature rule with 200 signatures from 50 counties, making it harder for locally based new parties to reach the statewide ballot.
Holding: The Court affirmed the lower court’s refusal to order emergency relief, allowing Illinois to enforce its 25,000-signature rule with a 200-from-50-counties distribution requirement and declining last-minute intervention before the election.
- Keeps locally supported parties off the imminent statewide ballot.
- Makes statewide ballot access harder for parties with concentrated regional support.
- Leaves constitutional challenges to such rules for later, non-emergency review.
Summary
Background
A group calling itself the Progressive Party, its candidates, and several Illinois voters sued to stop enforcement of an Illinois rule requiring 25,000 petition signatures to form a new statewide party, including at least 200 signatures from each of 50 counties. The record shows 52% of registered voters live in Cook County, 87% live in the 49 most populous counties, and only 13% live in the 53 least populous counties. A federal three-judge district court refused to issue an order putting the party on the ballot, and the case reached this Court.
Reasoning
The Court addressed whether Illinois may require signatures spread across many counties and whether a federal court should order emergency relief so close to an election. The per curiam opinion said the State may insist on statewide support and noted only 9,800 of the 25,000 signatures must be spread among many counties while the rest may come from a single county. Justice Rutledge, concurring, emphasized that even if constitutional problems existed, the Court should not issue emergency relief because the election was imminent, ballots (including absentee ballots) were already printed or distributed, and adding names could disrupt or disenfranchise many voters. The Court therefore affirmed the denial of relief.
Real world impact
The immediate result kept the Progressive Party’s candidates off the upcoming ballot and left Illinois free to apply its signature-distribution rule in that election. The decision makes it more difficult for parties with support concentrated in one area to gain statewide ballot access. Some constitutional challenges to such rules remain unresolved for future cases.
Dissents or concurrances
Justice Douglas, joined by Justices Black and Murphy, dissented, arguing the rule discriminates against voters in populous counties, violates equal protection, and that an injunction would not necessarily disrupt the election; he would have ordered relief.
Opinions in this case:
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