THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150293
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The Supreme Court asked the Justice Department Monday for an opinion on a challenge by three University of Virginia students to a fee charged Republicans attending a state nominating convention.
The Republican Party of Virginia charged delegates attending its June convention a $35 fee; local parties added surcharges of up to $20. The convention nominated Oliver North as its U.S. Senate candidate. He lost to Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb in last week's election.
The law students are urging the justices to rule that the fee amounted to a poll tax outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The court asked for the Clinton administration's opinion on the students' appeal of a ruling by a panel of three federal judges in Charlottesville. The court is not expected to say whether it will review the appeal until it hears from the Justice Department, which could take months.
Student Fortis Morse said he was encouraged by the court's request.
``We think that the Justice Department will be very concerned about the practice in Virginia and we think they will express that concern,'' he said.
``We feel like the Justice Department understands the Voting Rights Act and how it would apply to our situation.''
Dave Johnson, executive director of the state Republican Party, said he expects the Justice Department to side with the students.
``I don't think I'll be surprised at all to see the Clinton Justice Department delve further into the business of political parties,'' he said.
The students had also argued that, under a separate section of the voting rights law, the fee should have been submitted to the Justice Department for approval.
The three-judge federal court ruled that such federal pre-clearance applies only to a political party's conduct of primary elections, not nominating conventions.
The three-judge court said private citizens don't have the legal standing to sue over an allegedly illegal tax on voters.
In the appeal by Morse, Kenneth Bartholomew and Kimberly Enderson, their lawyers wrote that the students wanted to participate in the nominating convention but ``were deterred from attending . . . by the $45 fee.'' The students are registered to vote in Albemarle County, where the local Republican party added $10 to the $35 state party fee.
The three-judge court's ruling ``represents a dramatic departure from well-settled law about the scope'' of the voting rights law ``and the right of private parties to enforce'' it, the appeal said.
Lawyers for the state GOP urged the justices to reject the appeal, deriding the poll-tax allegation.
``The payment at issue here is not a poll tax. Not being imposed by the state, it is not a tax at all,'' they said. ``Not being a burden on the right to vote in an election, it is not a poll tax. The fact that a delegate filing fee and a poll tax both involve the payment of money hardly permits the former to be redefined into the latter.''
KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF
VIRGINIA REPUBLICAN CONVENTION by CNB