The Buckley ruling did not involve and, therefore, did not address this critical question. In Annie Harper's case, the Supreme Court stated for the first time the principle that wealth cannot serve as a barrier to the right to vote. This time, the question concerned a system of high filing fees that the state of Texas required candidates to pay in order to appear on the primary ballot. The Court invalidated the system on equal protection grounds. And just two years ago, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its landmark rulings in Harper and Bullock .
Judicial intervention is now necessary to address the newest wealth barrier to our democracy.
We can take guidance from the Court's ruling in Bullock . If the primary is part of the democratic process, so too is the electoral campaign, including all the fundraising, that leads up to the primary and the general election. If our elections are to be truly public, they must be publicly financed. A system of public financing can be voluntary, so as to comport with the Buckley ruling. Under a voluntary system, participating candidates could receive equal and full amounts of public funding.