Geary v. Renne

880 F.2d 1062 58 USLW 2087 Bob GEARY, Robert Silvestri, Dennis Mark, Melissa Gundrun, Wayne Johnson, David Soule, Max Woods, Peter Johnson, Robert Gebert, Election Action, Terence Faulkner, and Sudi Trippet, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Louise RENNE, San Francisco City Attorney, Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Mayor, Board of Supervisors, City and County of San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco, and Jay Patterson, San Francisco Registrar of Voters, Defendants-Appellants. No. 88-2875. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Sept. 16, 1988. Decided July 24, 1989. Dennis Aftergut, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellants. Arlo H. Smith, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before SNEED, CANBY and TROTT, Circuit Judges. TROTT, Circuit Judge: 1 On June 3, 1986, the people of California amended their constitution to add the following provision as article II, Sec. 6(b): 2 No political party or party central committee may endorse, support or oppose a candidate for nonpartisan office. 1 3 In this appeal, we are asked to decide (1) whether this provision is…