Summary
upholding the 1967 version of s 99.021, F.S., which, inter alia, required a candidate for party nomination to pledge to vote for 90% of the opposed candidates of such party
Summary of this case from AGOOpinion
No. 36176.
March 22, 1967.
Dale Stevens, Fort Lauderdale, for petitioners.
Earl Faircloth, Atty. Gen., and Wilson W. Wright, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
By their petition for a writ of mandamus, the petitioners question the validity of various provisions of Florida's so-called "political party loyalty oath" prescribed by Section 99.021(1), Florida Statutes, F.S.A.
In effect we are asked to recede from our prior decisions in Mairs v. Peters, Fla., 52 So.2d 793 and Crowells v. Petersen, Fla., 118 So.2d 539. Petitioners insist that the rule of these cases has been superseded by principles announced in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 87 S.Ct. 675, 17 L.Ed.2d 629 and Bond v. Floyd, 385 U.S. 116, 87 S.Ct. 339, 17 L.Ed.2d 235. We find the federal cases inapposite. The petitioners have failed to demonstrate any justification for overruling the Florida cases cited. On the authority of those cases, the alternative writ of mandamus is quashed and the petition dismissed.
It is so ordered.
THORNAL, C.J., and THOMAS, DREW and ERVIN, JJ., concur.
ROBERTS, J., concurs specially with Opinion.
I agree with the judgment quashing the alternative writ of mandamus for the reason that, in my opinion, the petitioners are guilty of laches. Section 99.021(1), Florida Statutes, F.S.A., has been in existence for a number of years, yet petitioners come here on the very eve of an election seeking the extraordinary remedy of mandamus. It is "too little and too late."