Charfauros

In this appeal from the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (“CNMI”), Danny C. Charfauros, Gina T. Aldan, and John A. Atalig (collectively, “Appellees”) claim that the individual members of the CNMI Board of Elections (collectively, the “Board”) violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by administering pre-election day voter challenge procedures which precluded a certain class of voters, including Appellees, from voting in a 1995 election on Rota Island. The CNMI Supreme Court reversed the Superior Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Board on the ground of qualified immunity. Affirming the judgment of the CNMI Supreme Court, we hold that because the procedures employed by the Board violated Ap-pellees’ fundamental right to vote; the right to vote was clearly established at the time of the election; and a reasonable Board would have known that its actions violated Appellees’ right to vote, the individual Board members are not entitled to qualified immunity. We also hold that the allegations of the complaint are sufficient to support liability of the Board members in their individual capacities and that the composition of the CNMI Supreme Court’s Special…