576
Opinion of the Court
one else, has the right to select the New Party's standard bearer" (internal quotation marks omitted)); id., at 371 (Stevens, J., dissenting) ("The members of a recognized political party unquestionably have a constitutional right to select their nominees for public office").
In La Follette, the State of Wisconsin conducted an open presidential preference primary.6 Although the voters did not select the delegates to the Democratic Party's National Convention directly—they were chosen later at caucuses of party members—Wisconsin law required these delegates to vote in accord with the primary results. Thus allowing non-party members to participate in the selection of the party's nominee conflicted with the Democratic Party's rules. We held that, whatever the strength of the state interests supporting the open primary itself, they could not justify this "substantial intrusion into the associational freedom of members of the National Party." 7 450 U. S., at 126.
6 An open primary differs from a blanket primary in that, although as in the blanket primary any person, regardless of party affiliation, may vote for a party's nominee, his choice is limited to that party's nominees for all offices. He may not, for example, support a Republican nominee for Governor and a Democratic nominee for attorney general.
7 The dissent, in attempting to fashion its new rule—that the right not to associate does not exist with respect to primary elections, see post, at 594-595—rewrites Democratic Party of United States v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette, 450 U. S. 107 (1981), to stand merely for the proposition that a political party has a First Amendment right to "defin[e] the organization and composition of its governing units," post, at 592. In fact, however, the state-imposed burden at issue in La Follette was the " 'intrusion by those with adverse political principles' " upon the selection of the party's nominee (in that case its presidential nominee). 450 U. S., at 122 (quoting Ray v. Blair, 343 U. S. 214, 221-222 (1952)). See also 450 U. S., at 125 (comparing asserted state interests with burden created by the "imposition of voting requirements upon" delegates). Of course La Follette involved the burden a state regulation imposed on a national party, but that factor affected only the weight of the State's interest, and had no bearing upon the existence vel non of a party's First Amendment right to exclude. Id., at 121-122, 125-126. Although Justice Stevens now considers this interpretation of La Follette "specious," see post, at 592, n. 3, he once
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