Cite as: 520 U. S. 351 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
parties from the consequences of their own internal disagreements, e. g., Eu, supra, at 227. However, it does permit the State to enact reasonable election regulations that may, in practice, favor the traditional two-party system. Minnesota's fusion ban is far less burdensome than a California law, upheld in Storer, 415 U. S., at 728, that denied ballot positions to any independent candidate affiliated with a party at any time during the year preceding the primary election, and it is justified by similarly weighty state interests. The Court expresses no view on the party's policy-based arguments concerning the wisdom of fusion. Pp. 363-370. 73 F. 3d 196, reversed.
Rehnquist, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg, J., joined, and in Parts I and II of which Souter, J., joined, post, p. 370. Souter, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 382.
Richard S. Slowes, Assistant Solicitor General of Minnesota, argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Hubert H. Humphrey III, Attorney General, and Peter M. Ackerberg, Assistant Attorney General.
Laurence H. Tribe argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Joel Rogers, Sarah E. Siskind, Cornish F. Hitchcock, and David C. Vladeck.*
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.
Most States prohibit multiple-party, or "fusion," candidacies for elected office.1 The Minnesota laws challenged in
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. by Burt Neuborne, Steven R. Shapiro, Elliot M. Mincberg, and Lawrence S. Ottinger; for the Conservative Party of New York et al. by Rory O. Millson; for the Reform Party et al. by J. Gregory Taylor; for the Republican National Committee by Jan Witold Baran and Thomas J. Josefiak; and for Twelve University Professors et al. by David Halperin.
1 "Fusion," also called "cross-filing" or "multiple-party nomination," is "the electoral support of a single set of candidates by two or more parties." Argersinger, "A Place on the Ballot": Fusion Politics and Anti-
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