Alan B. Burdick v. Morris Takushi, Director of Elections of Hawaii, et al. (504 U.S. 428)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 8, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 504 U.S. 428 · 112 S. Ct. 2059
- Decided
- June 8, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. The issue in this case is whether Hawaii’s prohibition on write-in voting unreasonably infringes upon its citizens’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Petitioner contends that the Constitution requires Hawaii to provide for the casting, tabulation, and publication of write-in votes. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed, holding that the prohibition, taken as part of the State’s comprehensive election scheme, does not impermis-sibly burden the right to vote. 937 F. 2d 415, 422 (1991). We affirm. I Petitioner is a registered voter in the city and county of Honolulu. In 1986, only one candidate filed nominating papers to run for the seat representing petitioner’s district in the Hawaii House of Representatives. Petitioner wrote to state officials inquiring about Hawaii’s write-in voting policy and received a copy of an opinion letter issued by the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office stating that the State’s election law made no provision for write-in voting. 1 App. 38-39, 49. Petitioner then filed this lawsuit, claiming that he wished to vote in t>he primary and general elections for a person who had not filed nominating papers and that he wished to vote in future elections for other persons whose names might not appear on the ballot. Id., at 32-33. The United States District Court for the District of…
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