Opinion ID: 457052
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State's Defense of Its Regulation

Text: 85 A state regulation that substantially burdens first amendment rights of political association may be upheld only if it is necessary to advance compelling state interests and only if it is tailored to advance those interests in the least restrictive manner. See Roberts v. United States Jaycees, supra, 104 S.Ct. at 3258; Democratic Party v. Wisconsin, supra, 450 U.S. at 124, 101 S.Ct. at 1020; Cousins v. Wigoda, supra, 419 U.S. at 489, 95 S.Ct. at 548; Williams v. Rhodes, supra, 393 U.S. at 31, 89 S.Ct. at 10; Unity Party v. Wallace, 707 F.2d 59, 62 (2d Cir.1983). 86 The State asserts that its mandated closed primary law is narrowly tailored and is necessary to advance compelling state interests--preventing raiding, avoiding voter confusion, promoting a stable two-party system, and preserving the integrity of the electoral process. We address these claims seriatim.
87 Raiding is a practice whereby voters in sympathy with one party designate themselves as voters of another party so as to influence or determine the results of the other party's primary. Rosario v. Rockefeller, supra, 410 U.S. at 760, 93 S.Ct. at 1251. The State's interest in preventing raiding, though it may be legitimate in certain contexts, 26 is inapposite in the instant action. The Party Rule allows only unaffiliated voters to participate in Republican Party primaries; no such invitation has been extended to Democrats or members of other political parties. Moreover, we believe the spectre of Democratic voters severing their party ties en masse, and claiming independent status to mount a raid on a Republican Party is effectively eliminated by another section of the Connecticut General Statutes, see Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 9-59, which provides that a person affiliated with one party may not vote in the primary of another party within six months after leaving his original party. 88 Finally, the State's professed interest in preventing raiding is belied by its recent enactment of Public Act 84-118, permitting unaffiliated voters to affiliate with a political party until noon on the day immediately prior to the primary election. It would appear anomalous for a state truly concerned with voter raiding to eliminate any obstacle to independent voters determined to disrupt the candidate selection process of a political party.
89 The second interest articulated by the State in defense of its closed primary law is the need to avoid confusion among voters. The State maintains that, as a necessary concomitant of preferential ballot access, it may ensure that the candidate who wins a party primary accurately represents the views of the party members, and not those of an amorphous group of unaligned voters. The State premises its argument on the assumption that many voters rely on partisan labels as shorthand for particular ideologies, and thus presume that a candidate in the general election running under a party banner espouses the views generally held by party members, 27 see N. Nie, S. Verba & J. Petrock, The Changing American Voter 47-56 (1976), Martin Van Buren, Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States 6, 226 (1867). Arguing that such reliance is widespread, the State claims it has an interest in protecting voters from confusion. Even if this interest were deemed legitimate, a state certainly does not have a compelling interest in shielding from confusion those voters who engage in unthinking and Pavlovian reliance on party labels. Cf. Williams v. Rhodes, supra, 393 U.S. at 32, 89 S.Ct. at 11. Moreover, the State's position necessarily presumes a duty to define the composition of political parties in such a way as to clarify the political and ideological distinctions between them. In effect, Connecticut professes to have a compelling interest in deciding the ideological slant and bases of support for a political party. Most decidedly, however, it is the prerogative of the political party--and not the state--to determine whether it should be structured as a broad-based, relatively non-ideological organization or as a closely-knit, strongly ideological unit. The mere incantation of a talismanic phrase such as voter confusion cannot transform a specious interest into a compelling one.
90 The State further claims that its closed primary law maintains party identity, encourages politics of coalition and accommodation, A. Bickel, Reform and Continuity, 21-22 (1971), and is therefore required to preserve a stable two-party system. In framing its argument, the State points to the parade of horribles that would befall democracy if the Party Rule were implemented. Beneath this veneer of hyperbole, we find little substantive support for the State's position. Moreover, the issue is not, as urged by the State, which type of party primary--open or closed--is preferable. Rather, the proper inquiry is whether the State's insistence that the Republican Party adhere to a particular candidate selection process is justified by a compelling interest. 91 We are unable to discern how deviating from the state-mandated closed primary system will breed the splintered parties and unrestrained factionalism feared by the State. Indeed, it would appear that an open primary would achieve precisely the opposite effect, discouraging factionalism by forging a broader coalition of interests within a single political party. See Dawson, Social Development, Party Competition, and Policy, in The American Party Systems 208-09 (W. Chambers & W. Burnham eds. 1967). 28 See also Anderson v. Celebreeze, 460 U.S. 780 (1983). 92 By portraying change in the political order as anathema, the State ignores the flux that has traditionally characterized our two-party system. 29 As circumstances change, parties must be free to explore the political requisites of a given period. Whether the course selected by a party leads to success and power or to failure and decline, the first amendment guarantees that the decision be the choice of the party, not the state. 93
94 The final interest proffered by the State in defense of its closed primary law is preserving the integrity of the electoral process. Because primary elections are conducted at state expense, and because the state strengthens political parties by conferring preferential general election ballot access upon candidates selected in party primaries, it cannot be gainsaid that a state possesses a strong interest in the operation of its electoral regime. 95 We can well imagine circumstances in which the integrity of a state's electoral processes is threatened, and where some level of governmental intrusion into the administration of primaries is necessary to protect the state's vital interest in the fair and efficient running of elections. Indeed, states are inevitably and inexorably involved in the mechanics of elections, and this involvement may always be characterized as somewhat intrusive. Each time a state sets hours during which polls will be open, or designates polling places, or designs a system for absentee balloting, its choice affects the ability of certain persons to associate for political ends. Nevertheless, as these intrusions become more pronounced, and their effects increase, the ill sought to be cured by governmental involvement must become correspondingly greater. 96 Notwithstanding Connecticut's claim that implementing the Party Rule would render the state's electoral processes unmanageable and grant the Republican Party a practical veto over state law, and the party [would] become[ ] a law unto itself, Brief for Appellant at p. 45, we find little evidence in the record to support this assertion. Indeed, the State of Connecticut appears more concerned with the Party's ability to change its rules at will than with the specifics of the rule as it has enacted. The thrust of the State's argument is that the Party, if it may enact this rule, may in the future enact any and all rules it wishes. The fear expressed by the State in its brief and voiced at oral argument is that the Republican Party--and, perhaps, every other party--may implement new rules every year, requiring the State to change its electoral procedures constantly. The State further raises the spectre of party rules altered on the eve of election, forcing the State to recalibrate its electoral system on a moment's notice. 97 Indeed, the concerns of the State appear to be sincerely held. And, as we have noted, we can imagine circumstances where a state might in fact be forced to spend vast sums of money and endure considerable inconvenience to effect the whims of private political associations. But we stress that, in this case, the State's fears are just that--fears, and pure speculation will not support as massive a governmental intrusion into the affairs of a political association as that worked by Section 9-431. 98 As Justice Black noted in Williams v. Rhodes, supra, 393 U.S. at 33, 89 S.Ct. at 12, No ['theoretically imaginable'] danger can justify the ... crippling impact on the basic constitutional rights involved in this case. These words are particularly apt in the instant action. 99 Even if we were to assume, arguendo, that the State's compelling interest in preserving the integrity and stability of its electoral process was not overcome by the hypothetical nature of the potential abuses, we believe the State's interest may be justified by means far less drastic than its mandated closed primary. If, for example, Connecticut's concern truly lies with the constant changing of party rules, the State could simply impose a limit on the frequency with which party rules could be changed. Or, if the State's fears were caused by the spectre of last-minute changes in the manner of selecting candidates, the legislature could properly impose restrictions on the ability of a party to change its rules for a specified period prior to an election. Unlike Section 9-431, such legislation would be appropriately tailored to achieve the State's interests, while simultaneously minimizing the intrusion into a political party's first amendment right of association.