Book contents
- The Best Candidate
- The Best Candidate
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Presidential Selection: Historical, Institutional, and Democratic Perspectives
- 2 The Historical Development of the U.S. Presidential Nomination Process
- 3 Constitutional Law and the Presidential Nomination Process
- 4 Winnowing and Endorsing: Separating the Two Distinct Functions of Party Primaries
- 5 Simplifying Presidential Primaries
- 6 The Case for Standardizing Primary Voter Eligibility Rules
- 7 Primary Day: Why Presidential Nominees Should Be Chosen on a Single Day
- 8 A Eulogy for Caucuses
- 9 Floor Fight: Protecting the National Party Conventions from Manipulation
- 10 A Better Financing System? The Death and Possible Rebirth of the Presidential Nomination Public Financing Program
- 11 Campaign Finance Deregulation and the Hyperpolarization of Presidential Nominations in the Super PAC Era
- 12 Democratizing the Presidential Debates
- 13 The Influence of Technology on Presidential Primary Campaigns
- 14 Women and the Presidency
- 15 The Nomination of Presidential Candidates by Minor Political Parties
- 16 Reforming the Presidential Nominating Process: A Curmudgeon’s View
- Index
3 - Constitutional Law and the Presidential Nomination Process
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 September 2020
- The Best Candidate
- The Best Candidate
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Presidential Selection: Historical, Institutional, and Democratic Perspectives
- 2 The Historical Development of the U.S. Presidential Nomination Process
- 3 Constitutional Law and the Presidential Nomination Process
- 4 Winnowing and Endorsing: Separating the Two Distinct Functions of Party Primaries
- 5 Simplifying Presidential Primaries
- 6 The Case for Standardizing Primary Voter Eligibility Rules
- 7 Primary Day: Why Presidential Nominees Should Be Chosen on a Single Day
- 8 A Eulogy for Caucuses
- 9 Floor Fight: Protecting the National Party Conventions from Manipulation
- 10 A Better Financing System? The Death and Possible Rebirth of the Presidential Nomination Public Financing Program
- 11 Campaign Finance Deregulation and the Hyperpolarization of Presidential Nominations in the Super PAC Era
- 12 Democratizing the Presidential Debates
- 13 The Influence of Technology on Presidential Primary Campaigns
- 14 Women and the Presidency
- 15 The Nomination of Presidential Candidates by Minor Political Parties
- 16 Reforming the Presidential Nominating Process: A Curmudgeon’s View
- Index
Summary
The Constitution says nothing about the presidential nominating process and has had little direct role in the evolution of that process from congressional caucuses to party national conventions to our current primary-dominated system of selecting convention delegates. Yet, constitutional law is a factor in empowering and constraining the principal actors in the nomination process and in shaping the framework for potential future changes.
The constitutional law of the presidential nomination process operates along two axes: government-party, and state-national. The government-party dimension focuses on the tension between the states and the federal government in writing the rules for and administering the electoral process—which may include the primary elections that determine the nominees of the political parties—and the right of the parties to determine how to pick their nominees. This government-party axis affects all nominations of candidates for state and federal office.
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- Information
- The Best CandidatePresidential Nomination in Polarized Times, pp. 54 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020