Shaheen Shafii, Sr. v. City of Charleston, West Virginia, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia considers the City of Charleston Defendants’ motion to dismiss Shaheen Shafii, Sr.’s amended § 1983 complaint challenging his exclusion from the 2026 mayoral primary ballot. The opinion addresses alleged equal protection, ballot-access, due process, and municipal-liability claims arising from the City’s treatment of Shafii’s returned filing-fee check. In the excerpt provided, the Court concludes that Shafii failed to plausibly allege a valid equal protection claim and dismisses that claim.

Holdings

1. The complaint failed to plausibly allege an equal protection violation because Shafii and Smith were not similarly situated and the alleged disparate treatment was not shown to result from intentional and arbitrary discriminatory animus.
2. The ballot-access claim failed because Shafii challenged the City's allegedly disparate administration of filing and cure requirements, not an election law or regulation imposing an unconstitutional burden; the claim was duplicative of the unsuccessful equal protection claim.
3. Shafii did not plausibly allege a procedural due process violation because he had no constitutionally protected property or liberty interest in being placed on the ballot for mayor.
4. The municipal-liability claim failed because Shafii did not plausibly allege an underlying constitutional violation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Shafii plausibly alleged an equal protection claim based on the City's permitting another candidate to cure a returned filing-fee check while refusing to permit Shafii to do so.
2. Whether Shafii plausibly alleged that the City's administration of the filing-fee and cure requirements unlawfully burdened his First and Fourteenth Amendment ballot-access rights.
3. Whether Shafii had a constitutionally protected property or liberty interest in placement on the mayoral ballot sufficient to support a procedural due process claim.
4. Whether Shafii could maintain a municipal-liability claim absent an underlying constitutional violation.

Disposition

dismissed