Greenwood

Unsuccessful candidates for student government positions at the University of California, Santa Cruz (“UCSC”) and a student organization, of which the candidates are members, challenged specific provisions of the University’s election code on First Amendment grounds. The district court held that it lacked the authority to order a new election because the defendants, various University officials, were entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity. The district court dismissed the remaining claims as moot because the defendants had removed the challenged provisions from the election code. We affirm.

This appeal arises out of a dispute over the rules that governed the Spring 2002 election to the Student Union Assembly (“SUA”), a student government body at the UCSC. The plaintiffs and appellants are three students and a student organization. The students, Matthew Cox, Colleen McLaughlin, and Dan Burkhart, were unsuccessful candidates for SUA positions. The students were also members of the student organization, Students for a Conservative America.

In October of 2002, the plaintiffs sued members of UCSC’s administration, officers of SUA, SUA’s election commissioners, and several Doe…