De la Fuente v. Cortes

207 F. Supp. 3d 441, 2016 WL 4870631, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124555
District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania·Decided September 14, 2016·No. 1:16-cv-1696·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

John E. Jones III, United States District Judge

Presently pending before the Court is a Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 10) filed by Defendants Pedro A. Cortes and Jonathan Marks (collectively, “Defendants”). The Motion is filed in response to Plaintiff Ro-que de la Fuente’s Amended Complaint for Emergency Mandamus, Injunctive and Declaratory Relief (Doc. 4), filed on August 18, 2016. Due to the expedited nature of this proceeding and the close relation of the issues raised with matters of Pennsylvania election law, the Court requested that the parties brief the threshold issue of abstention on an accelerated schedule. We have now received a full complement of briefings (Docs. 11,12, and 13) in response to the Motion and the Motion is accordingly ripe for the Court’s review. For the following reasons, the Court shall abstain and shall not proceed to the merits of Plaintiffs claims.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff Roque “Rocky” De la Fuente (“Plaintiff’) is an independent candidate for the Office of the President of the United States. (Doc. 4, ¶ 19). Plaintiff seeks a position as an independent political candidate on the election ballot in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the 2016 Presidential Election this coming November. However, Plaintiff is also a registered and enrolled member of the Florida Democratic Party, and previously ran in the Democratic Primary as a candidate for the presidential nomination earlier this year. {Id., ¶¶ 20-21). Although Plaintiff participated in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary, he did not succeed in procuring the nomination and finished third out of three candidates. (Doc. 11, p. 2).

On August 1, 2016, Plaintiffs agents filed nomination papers with Defendants’ offices, seeking to procure for Plaintiff a position on the presidential ballot as an independent candidate. (Doc. 4, ¶ 23). The papers contained over 5,000 valid signatures of qualified electors residing within Pennsylvania. (Id.). Plaintiffs nomination papers were subsequently rejected, with Defendants “citing the fact that [Pjlaintiff had appeared on the Commonwealth’s 2016 Democratic presidential preference primary electing delegates to the Democratic National Convention and extending enforcement of 25 P.S. § 2911(e)(5) to primary elections for the election of internal party offices.” (Id., ¶ 24). Plaintiff also avers that Defendants may have rejected Plaintiffs papers on grounds provided by 25 P.S. §§ 2911(e)(6) and § 2911.1. (Id., ¶ 25).1 The rejection notification that De[445]*445fendants issued advised Plaintiff that “the candidate may file a mandamus action in Commonwealth Court asking the court to order the Secretary of the Commonwealth to accept the nomination paper.” (Doc. 11, p. 5).

As noted above, on August 18, 2016, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint with this Court, arguing that the Pennsylvania election laws as interpreted by Defendants unconstitutionally impose additional qualifications on candidates for federal office in violation of the Qualification Clause of Article II and the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. (Doc. 4, ¶¶51, 53-54). Plaintiff also argues that Defendants lack statutory authority under the express terms of 25 P.S. § 2911(e)(5) to disqualify Plaintiff from running as an independent, either because Plaintiff also ran in the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary, or because Plaintiff is a registered member of the Florida Democratic Party. (Id., ¶44, 45). To remedy these alleged violations, Plaintiff requests emergency mandamus relief ordering Defendants to accept Plaintiff’s nomination papers; injunctive relief enjoining Defendants from enforcing 25 P.S. §§ 2911(e)(5) and (6) and § 2911.1; and a declaration that 25 P.S. §§ 2911(e)(5) and (6) and/or § 2911.1 are unconstitutional as applied to independent and political body candidates for President and Vice President of the United States. (Id., ¶ 60).

On August 25, 2016, Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss, emphasizing that Plaintiffs claims turn on Plaintiffs argument that Defendants have wrongly interpreted the applicable Pennsylvania election laws. Defendants argue that Plaintiffs claims raise an unsettled issue of state law more rightly addressed by the Commonwealth Court, and as such this Court’s abstention under the Pullman Doctrine is appropriate. As noted above and addressed more thoroughly in our analysis below, we agree and shall therefore abstain from the above-captioned matter on the grounds articulated by the Pullman Doctrine.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) contends that the complaint has failed to assert a claim upon which relief can be granted. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). In considering the motion, courts “accept all factual allegations as true, construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and determine whether, under any reasonable reading of the complaint, the plaintiff may be entitled to relief.” Phillips v. Cnty. of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 231 (3d Cir.2008) (quoting Pinker v. Roche Holdings, Ltd., 292 F.3d 361, 374 n. 7 (3d Cir.2002)). To resolve the motion, a court generally should consider only the allegations in the complaint, as well as “any matters incorporated by reference or integral to the claim, items subject to judicial notice, matters of public record, orders, [and] items appearing in the record of the case.” Buck v. Hampton Twp. Sch. Dist., 452 F.3d 256, 260 (3d Cir.2006) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

In general, a Rule 12(b)(6) motion tests the sufficiency of the complaint against the pleading requirements of Rule 8(a). Rule 8(a)(2) requires that a complaint [446]*446contain a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, “in order to ‘give the defendant fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.’ ” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957) (alteration omitted)). While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss need not contain detailed factual allegations, it must contain “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). To survive a motion to dismiss, “a civil plaintiff must allege facts that ‘raise a right to relief above the speculative level....'" Victaulic Co. v. Tieman, 499 F.3d 227, 234 (3d Cir. 2007) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S.

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De la Fuente v. Cortes, 207 F. Supp. 3d 441, 2016 WL 4870631, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124555 (M.D. Pa. 2016).

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