7 - Doubling Down on the Party Organization in Service of the Major Parties

Summary

At first glance, California Democratic Party v. Jones might seem like Tashjian redux; a state law regulating party primaries is opposed by one or more of the parties, and the Court intervenes and declares the law to be an unconstitutional infringement on the party’s First Amendment freedom of expressive association. Here, however, the law imposed a blanket primary, a primary form that takes “openness” one step further than even an open primary. Under the California blanket primary law, all primary ballots were to list all candidates regardless of party affiliation, and the candidate of each respective party to receive the most votes would become the nominee of that party in the general election.¹ In Tashjian the party organization wanted to include additional voters in its primary that the state wanted to exclude, and in Jones the party organization wanted to exclude voters the state wanted to include.