Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)
Thomas, J., dissenting
a classic prior restraint on political expression, as Justice Scalia cogently explains. See ante, at 243-246.
Legislative burdens on associational rights are subject to scrutiny under the First Amendment. See Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U. S., at 433-434 (level of scrutiny depends upon severity of the infringement); cf. Eu, supra, at 225; Cousins, supra, at 489. Severe interference with protected rights of political association "may [only] be sustained if the [government] demonstrates a sufficiently important interest and employs means closely drawn to avoid unnecessary abridgment of associational freedoms." Buckley, supra, at 25. Though Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer glibly dismiss this constitutional inquiry, see ante, at 228-229; ante, at 239 ("[s]uch questions, we are satisfied, are not so difficult"), it is not equally obvious to me that § 5, as interpreted today, would survive a First Amendment challenge.
Justice Stevens is correct that, under the White Primary Cases, First Amendment rights of political association cede to the guarantees of the Fifteenth Amendment in certain circumstances. Ante, at 228. The Court has held that when state-approved exclusion from a political group is tantamount to exclusion from the actual election, that exclusion violates the Fifteenth Amendment. See Terry v. Adams, 345 U. S., at 469-470. However, where a person is refused membership in a political organization without any involvement on the part of the State, and membership in the group is not a precondition to participation in the ultimate choice of representatives, there can logically be no state denial of the right to vote. In such a situation, there is no conflict between the First and Fifteenth Amendments.
Exclusion of political parties from the coverage of § 5 obviates the foregoing First Amendment problems. Cf. Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900, 926-927 (1995) (rejecting possible reading of § 5 because it raised constitutional problems). By letting stand a construction of § 5 that encompasses political parties, however, the Court begets these weighty First
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