Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, et al. (552 U.S. 442)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 18, 2008 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 552 U.S. 442 · 128 S. Ct. 1184
- Decided
- March 18, 2008
- Term
- October Term 2007
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. In 2004, voters in the State of Washington passed an initiative changing the State’s primary election system. The People’s Choice Initiative of 2004, or Initiative 872 (1-872), provides that candidates for office shall be identified on the ballot by their self-designated “party preference”; that voters may vote for any candidate; and that the top two votegetters for each office, regardless of party preference, advance to the general election. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held 1-872 facially invalid as imposing an unconstitutional burden on state political parties’ First Amendment rights. Because 1-872 does not on its face impose a severe burden on political parties’ associational rights, and because respondents’ arguments to the contrary rest on factual assumptions about voter confusion that can be evaluated only in the context of an as-applied challenge, we reverse. I For most of the past century, Washington voters selected nominees for state and local offices using a blanket primary. From 1935 until 2003, the State used a blanket primary that placed candidates from all parties on one ballot and allowed voters to select a candidate from any party. See 1935 Wash. Laws §§1-5, pp. 60-64. Under this system, the candidate who won a plurality of votes within each major party became that party’s nominee in the general…
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