Cite as: 530 U. S. 567 (2000)
Stevens, J., dissenting
party could, if a majority of its members chose to do so, adopt a platform advocating white supremacy and opposing the election of any non-Caucasians. Indeed, it could decide to use its funds and oratorical skills to support only those candidates who were loyal to its racist views. Moreover, if a State permitted its political parties to select their candidates through conventions or caucuses, a racist party would also be free to select only candidates who would adhere to the party line.
As District Judge Levi correctly observed in an opinion adopted by the Ninth Circuit, however, the associational rights of political parties are neither absolute nor as comprehensive as the rights enjoyed by wholly private associations. 169 F. 3d 646, 654-655 (1999); cf. Timmons, 520 U. S., at 360 (concluding that while regulation of endorsements implicates political parties' internal affairs and core associational ac-lette, 450 U. S. 107, 128 (1981) (dissenting opinion). Indeed, the La Follette Court went out of its way to characterize the Wisconsin law in this manner in order to avoid casting doubt on the constitutionality of open primaries. Id., at 121 (majority opinion) (noting that the issue was not whether an open primary was constitutional but "whether the State may compel the National Party to seat a delegation chosen in a way that violates the rules of the Party"). The fact that the La Follette Court also characterizes the Wisconsin law at one point as a law "impos[ing] . . . voting requirements" on delegates, id., at 125, does not alter the conclusion that La Follette is a case about state regulation of internal party processes, not about regulation of primary elections. State-mandated intrusion upon either delegate selection or delegate voting would surely implicate the affected party's First Amendment right to define the organization and composition of its governing units, but it is clear that California intrudes upon neither in this case. Ante, at 570-571, n. 2.
La Follette and Cousins also stand for the proposition that a State's interest in regulating at the national level the types of party activities mentioned in the text is outweighed by the burden that state regulation would impose on the parties' associational rights. See Bellotti v. Connolly, 460 U. S. 1057, 1062-1063, and n. 3 (1983) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (quoted in part ante, at 577, n. 7). In this case, however, California does not seek to regulate such activities at all, much less to do so at the national level.
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