320
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
2.
The final aspect of BCRA that implicates Buckley's anti-corruption rationale is § 213, the forced choice provision. The majority concludes § 213 violates the Constitution. I agree and write on this aspect of the case to point out that the section's unlawfulness flows not from the unique contours of the statute that settle how much political parties may spend on their candidate's campaign, see ante, at 215-219, but from its raw suppression of constitutionally protected speech.
Section 213 unconstitutionally forces the parties to surrender one of two First Amendment rights. We affirmed that parties have a constitutionally protected right to make independent expenditures in Colorado I. I continue to believe, moreover, that even under Buckley a political party has a protected right to make coordinated expenditures with its candidates. See Colorado II, 533 U. S., at 466-482 (Thomas, J., dissenting). Our well-established constitutional tradition respects the role parties play in the electoral process and in stabilizing our representative democracy. "There can be little doubt that the emergence of a strong and stable two-party system in this country has contributed enormously to sound and effective government." Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U. S. 109, 144-145 (1986) (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment). This role would be undermined in the absence of a party's ability to coordinate with candidates. Cf. Colorado I, supra, at 629 (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment and dissenting in part) (parties can "give effect to their views only by selecting and supporting candidates"). Section 213's command that the parties abandon one First Amendment right or the other offends the Constitution even more than a command that a person choose between a First Amendment right and a statutory right.
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