United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Hopfmann v. Connolly, 471 U.S. 459 (1985)

Hopfmann v. Connolly

No. 84-1440

Decided May 13, 1985

471 U.S. 459

Syllabus

Held: In federal court proceedings wherein it was claimed that the Massachusetts Democratic Party's Charter, as enforced by a Massachusetts statute, violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the Court of Appeals erred in concluding, on the basis of Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U. S. 332, that the claim here was foreclosed by this Court's summary disposition of two appeals from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Langone v. Connolly, 460 U. S. 1057. Hicks explained the precedential effect of a dismissal by this Court "for want of [a] substantial federal question" where this Court has jurisdiction over an appeal. However, in Langone, this Court dismissed the appeals for lack of appellate jurisdiction, and thus had no occasion to adjudicate the merits of the constitutional questions presented in the jurisdictional statements. Nor did the denial of certiorari, upon treating the papers whereon the appeals were taken in Langone as petitions for certiorari, have any precedential effect.

Appeal dismissed for want of jurisdiction and, treating the papers as a petition for certiorari, certiorari granted; 746 F.2d 97, vacated and remanded.