COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIANA Et Al. v. WHITCOMB, GOVERNOR OF INDIANA, Et Al.
Headline: Court denies emergency request to overturn Indiana’s ballot-oath ruling, leaving a district court decision on the ballot oath intact and denying immediate relief to the challengers.
Holding: The Court refused to grant immediate, mandatory relief overturning the district court’s October 4, 1972 order because the applicants failed to show an indisputably clear right to such extraordinary treatment.
- Denies immediate reversal of the District Court’s order on Indiana’s ballot oath.
- Leaves the district court’s ruling in effect while other proceedings continue.
- Limits use of emergency mandatory injunctions to truly extraordinary cases.
Summary
Background
A group of people challenging Indiana’s law about a required oath to appear on the ballot asked the Court for emergency help. They filed a motion labeled an “Application for Stay” after a district court entered an order on October 4, 1972, in a case about whether that oath was unconstitutional. The applicants actually sought a quick partial reversal of the district court’s order rather than a simple pause.
Reasoning
Justice Rehnquist, acting as the Circuit Justice, explained that one justice of this Court can, under the Court’s Rule 51, grant an extraordinary form of relief in the shape of a mandatory injunction — a court order that would force an immediate change. But the opinion stresses that practice and usage limit that remedy to very unusual cases. To use it, the right to relief must be indisputably clear. The applicants did not show such a clear, unavoidable right, so the Circuit Justice declined to grant the extraordinary relief.
Real world impact
Because the emergency request for immediate reversal and mandatory relief was denied, the district court’s October 4, 1972 order is not overturned by this application. The applicants do not receive prompt relief from this Court through that motion, and the extraordinary shortcut the applicants sought is not available on the facts they presented.
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