OCTOBER TERM, 1999
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit
No. 99-401. Argued April 24, 2000—Decided June 26, 2000
One way that candidates for public office in California gain access to the general ballot is by winning a qualified political party's primary. In 1996, Proposition 198 changed the State's partisan primary from a closed primary, in which only a political party's members can vote on its nominees, to a blanket primary, in which each voter's ballot lists every candidate regardless of party affiliation and allows the voter to choose freely among them. The candidate of each party who wins the most votes is that party's nominee for the general election. Each of petitioner political parties prohibits nonmembers from voting in the party's primary. They filed suit against respondent state official, alleging, inter alia, that the blanket primary violated their First Amendment rights of association. Respondent Californians for an Open Primary intervened. The District Court held that the primary's burden on petitioners' associational rights was not severe and was justified by substantial state interests. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.
Held: California's blanket primary violates a political party's First Amendment right of association. Pp. 572-586.
(a) States play a major role in structuring and monitoring the primary election process, but the processes by which political parties select their nominees are not wholly public affairs that States may regulate freely. To the contrary, States must act within limits imposed by the Constitution when regulating parties' internal processes. See, e. g., Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Comm., 489 U. S. 214. Respondents misplace their reliance on Smith v. Allwright, 321 U. S. 649, and Terry v. Adams, 345 U. S. 461, which held not that party affairs are public affairs, free of First Amendment protections, see, e. g., Tashjian v. Republican Party of Conn., 479 U. S. 208, but only that, when a State prescribes an election process that gives a special role to political parties, the parties' discriminatory action becomes state action under the Fifteenth Amendment. This Nation has a tradition of political associations in which citizens band together to promote candidates who espouse their political views. The First Amendment protects the freedom to join together to further common political beliefs, id., at 214-215, which presupposes the freedom to identify those who constitute the
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