Cite as: 520 U. S. 351 (1997)
Stevens, J., dissenting
the State's asserted interests must at least bear some plausible relationship to the burdens it places on political parties. See Anderson, 460 U. S., at 789. Although the Court today suggests that the State does not have to support its asserted justifications for the fusion ban with evidence that they have any empirical validity, ante, at 364, we have previously required more than a bare assertion that some particular state interest is served by a burdensome election requirement. See, e. g., Eu, 489 U. S., at 226 (rejecting California's argument that the State's endorsement ban protected political stability because the State "never adequately explain[ed] how banning parties from endorsing or opposing primary candidates advances that interest"); Anderson, 460 U. S., at 789 (evaluating a State's interests, we examine "the extent to which those interests make it necessary to burden the plaintiff's rights"); Norman v. Reed, 502 U. S. 279, 288- 289 (1992) ("corresponding interest" must be "sufficiently weighty to justify the limitation").3
While the State describes some imaginative theoretical sources of voter confusion that could result from fusion candidacies, in my judgment the argument that the burden on First Amendment interests is justified by this concern is meritless and severely underestimates the intelligence of the
3 In any event, the parade of horribles that the majority appears to believe might visit Minnesota should fusion candidacies be allowed is fantastical, given the evidence from New York's experience with fusion. See Brief for Conservative Party of New York et al. as Amici Curiae 20-25. Thus, the evidence that actually is available diminishes, rather than strengthens, Minnesota's claims. The majority asserts, ante, at 368-369, n. 12, that California's cross-filing system, in place during the first half of this century, provides a compelling counterexample. But cross-filing, which "allowed candidates to file in the primary of any or all parties without specifying party affiliation," D. Mazmanian, Third Parties in Presidential Elections 132-133 (1974) (hereinafter Mazmanian), is simply not the same as fusion politics, and the problems suffered in California do not provide empirical support for Minnesota's position.
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