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Sindicato Puertorriqueno De Trabajadores, Seiu Local 1996 v. Luis Fortuno, In His Official Capacity As Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

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Before Torruella, Lipez, and Howard, Circuit Judges.

In this appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction, plaintiff labor unions claim that Sections 6.007-.010 of Law 222, Puerto Rico’s campaign finance law, place an unconstitutional burden on the unions’ First Amendment right to engage in political speech. Despite the gravity of plaintiffs’ claims and months of procedural wrangling, including two writs of mandamus from this court to the district court directing it to rule on plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunctive relief and the merits of their constitutional claims, both the district court and the government declined to address the merits of their claims. Indeed, we asked the Puerto Rico government three times at oral argument to defend the merits of the campaign finance provisions at issue, and each time the government declined to do so. In the absence of any such defense, and in light of the other factors relevant to the preliminary injunction analysis, we issued an appellate injunction on October 11, 2012, enjoining enforcement of the challenged provisions of Law 222 pending the final disposition of this appeal. We now resolve that appeal. In so doing, we explain more fully the reasons why we ordered the entry of the appellate injunction. We also set forth at the end of the opinion the preliminary injunction that we now direct the district court to enter.

I. Background

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