718
Opinion of the Court
parties promote and generate political discourse, see, e. g., Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 14-15 (1976) (per curiam); Democratic Party of United States v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette, 450 U. S. 107, 121-122 (1981).
We need not inquire, however, whether patronage promotes the party system or serves instead to entrench parties in power, see Elrod v. Burns, supra, at 364-373 (plurality opinion); Rutan v. Republican Party of Ill., supra, at 88-89, n. 4 (Stevens, J., concurring), for Elrod and Branti establish that patronage does not justify the coercion of a person's political beliefs and associations. Although no opinion in Elrod commanded a majority of the Court, five Justices found common ground in the proposition that subjecting a nonconfidential, nonpolicymaking public employee to penalty for exercising rights of political association was tantamount to an unconstitutional condition under Perry v. Sindermann, supra. See Elrod v. Burns, supra, at 359 (plurality opinion) ("The threat of dismissal for failure to provide [support for the favored political party] unquestionably inhibits protected belief and association, and dismissal for failure to provide support only penalizes its exercise"); 427 U. S., at 375 (Stewart, J., concurring in judgment) ("The single substantive question involved in this case is whether a nonpolicymaking, nonconfidential government employee can be discharged or threatened with discharge from a job that he is satisfactorily performing upon the sole ground of his political beliefs. I agree with the plurality that he cannot").
Four Terms later, in Branti v. Finkel, supra, we reaffirmed Elrod's common holding and said government termination of a public employee on account of his political affiliation brings our unconstitutional conditions cases into play, for "[i]f the First Amendment protects a public employee from discharge based on what he has said, it must also protect him from discharge based on what he believes," 445 U. S., at 515. We also modified the standard, announced in the two opinions supporting the Elrod judgment, for assess-
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007