Supreme Court upholds Oklahoma semi-closed primary
The First Amendment Center has this analysis by Tony Mauro: By upholding Oklahoma’s semi-closed primary election law yesterday, the Supreme Court gave higher priority to the state’s power to regulate elections than to the First Amendment associational rights of the Oklahoma Libertarian Party.
But a close reading of the two main opinions in the decision may give hope to minor parties that the Supreme Court will be more sympathetic to future challenges to election laws.
“The bottom line is that the opinions are an invitation for lower courts to consider challenges by minor parties that state election laws as a whole discriminate against minor parties,” said Loyola Law School professor Rick Hasen on his Election Law blog yesterday.
Under the law upheld in yesterday’s Clingman v. Beaver decision, political parties may allow only their own members and registered independents to vote in their primaries. When the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma (LPO) notified the state election board in 2000 that it wanted to allow registered Democrats and Republicans to vote in its primary as well, the board turned it down. -- Majority backs Oklahoma's primary-election rules