Opinion

Coto v. New York City Board of Elections

  • 101 F.3d 803
Court
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Filed
Oct 8, 1996
Status
Published
Author
Oakes
On the bench
Altimari, Mahoney, Oakes
Cited by
1 cases
Authority
More cited than 17.2%

The opinion

OAKES, Senior Circuit Judge,

concurring:

I concur, bound as I am by the, precedent of Powell v. Power, 436 F.2d 84 (2d Cir.1970), although the irregularities here were so gross as to call the flat statements in that precedent into serious question. However, to erode Powell , even in cases as Jraught with irregularity as these, would put the federal courts in the extremely difficult position of monitoring state primaries as to the extent of election law violations, cases which would involve serious time constraints, difficult questions of cause and effect, and extremely complicated questions of remedy, including whether to order a reeleetion overall or only in certain districts, etc. Thus, though I was initially inclined to agree with District Judge Trager that the facts of these cases and the related cases went beyond the bounds of simple irregularity, on further reflection they still fall short of the intentional deprivation called for by Powell and progeny. Therefore, I am required, reluctantly, to concur.

I cannot help but note my view, however, that the only “abuse” of Judge Trager’s discretion was his hesitanee to construe our precedent- as strictly as my colleagues did, and I now do. Indeed, I thought he took a very sensible, restrained, and practical approach to an almost impossible series of bureaucratic and official errors resulting in the deprivation of important, fundamental voting rights. Let us hope that a repetition of such will , not again occur. Were it to do so, it would, I think, invite this court to look anew at the Powell approach.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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