Court Revives Challenge to 1982 Ballot Inquiry

A divided federal appeals court Tuesday revived a challenge by minority groups to U.S. Atty. Joseph P. Russoniello’s dormant 1982 investigation in which he sent to immigration officials the names of applicants for bilingual ballots.

The investigation chose its targets by a classification “for all practical purposes . . . based on race and national origin” and can be justified only if necessary to prevent voting fraud, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 6-5 decision by an 11-member panel of the court.

The court noted claims by groups representing Latinos and Chinese-Americans that the investigation had frightened many new citizens out of registering to vote, as reflected in a drop-off of the usually high registration rate during the final weeks of a 1982 registration drive.

“These individuals are new to this country,” the opinion by Judge Harry Pregerson said. “Thus they are understandably insecure in exercising their recently acquired rights as citizens and easily intimidated by government action.”

The court returned the case to a lower court to decide whether to issue an order to prevent similar investigations in the future. The court said no damages could be collected because government officials had acted in good faith.

In dissent, Judge J. Clifford Wallace said the investigation focused legitimately on voters who were most likely to have information about illegal registration by non-citizens.

The ruling reversed decisions by U.S. District Judge Spencer Williams and a three-judge panel of the appeals court, which ruled 2 to 1 last September that Russoniello had not violated anyone’s rights in his investigation.

Russoniello began the investigation soon after his appointment by President Reagan as chief federal prosecutor for coastal Northern California.

Citing information from a local prosecutor that non-citizens were being allowed to register to vote, Russoniello asked prosecutors in nine northern counties to each send him 25 names of recent applicants for bilingual ballots.

He sent 168 names to U.S. immigration officials for citizenship checks and later asked local prosecutors to interview 113 people whom immigration officials could not positively identify as citizens. The investigation ended without any prosecutions.

On the central issue of the case, Pregerson said the investigation raised legal issues of racial and national origin discrimination against new citizens who speak Spanish or Chinese, the only languages in which bilingual ballots are available.

“It is clear that the investigation targeted Chinese and Hispanic immigrants,” Pregerson said.