Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/445

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 279 (1992)

287

Opinion of the Court

dress the effect of petitioners’ failure to list candidates for county judgeships. Three of the court’s seven members dissented on the ground that the majority’s construction of Illinois law irrationally and unconstitutionally suppressed the development of new political parties. The majority justices indicated that they would issue an explanatory opinion, but they never have.6 Petitioners then applied for a stay from Justice Stevens, who, in his capacity as Circuit Justice, ordered the mandate of the Illinois Supreme Court to be “stayed or, if necessary, recalled” pending further review by this Court. Order in No. A–309 (Oct. 22, 1990). On October 25, 1990, the full Court granted petitioners’ application for stay pending the filing and disposition of a petition for certiorari, 498 U. S. 931, thereby effectively reviving the Electoral Board’s decision and permitting petitioners to run under the Party name in the November 6, 1990, Cook County election. According to the undisputed representation of the Board, see Brief for Petitioners in No. 90–1435, p. 10, while none of the HWP candidates was elected, several did receive over 5% of the vote, thus fulfilling, if the election stands, a necessary and apparently sufficient condition for the Party’s qualification as an “established political party” within all or part of Cook County at the next election. In due course, petitioners filed a petition for certiorari in No. 90–1126, and the Board, a respondent in that action, filed its own petition in No. 90–1435.7 We granted each on May 20, 1991. 500 U. S. 931 (1991). II We start with Reed’s contention that we should treat the controversy as moot because the election is over. We should 6 Three of the four justices in the majority have left the court since the date of the order. 7 Under Illinois practice, if the Board’s decision is appealed, it joins the prevailing party in support of its own decision.