Republican Party of State of Conn. v. Tashjian, 1165
| Decision Date | 08 August 1985 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 1165,1165 |
| Citation | 770 F.2d 265 |
| Parties | REPUBLICAN PARTY OF the STATE OF CONNECTICUT, Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., Stewart B. McKinney, Nancy L. Johnson and Thomas J. D'Amore, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Julia H. TASHJIAN, Secretary of the State of the State of Connecticut, Defendant-Appellant. ocket 85-7011. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Elliot F. Gerson, Deputy Atty. Gen., Hartford, Conn. , for defendant-appellant.
Stanley A. Twardy, Jr., Silver, Golub & Sandak, Stamford, Conn. (David S. Golub, Stamford, Conn., of counsel), Ralph G. Elliot, Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn, Hartford, Conn., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Stephen E. Gottlieb, Albany Law School, Albany, N.Y., for amici curiae, political scientists.
James A. Wade, Robinson & Cole, Hartford, Conn., for amicus curiae, Democratic Party of the State of Conn.
Martin Margulies, University of Bridgeport School of Law, Bridgeport, Conn. and Martha Stone, Connecticut Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Hartford, Conn., for amicus curiae, Connecticut Civil Liberties Union.
Before KAUFMAN, OAKES and CARDAMONE, Circuit Judges.
Fascinated by the penchant of Americans to band together and gather strength from association, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote:
The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his fellow creatures, and of acting in common with them. The right of association therefore appears to me almost as inalienable in its nature as the right of personal liberty. No legislator can attack it without impairing the foundations of society.
A. de Tocqueville, 2 Democracy in America 203 (Bradley, ed. 1954).
It is this ability and propensity of our citizenry to unite and pursue desired goals that form the foundation of American political thought. Indeed, the very existence of this nation stands as a testament to the efficacy of political organization.
The bundle of freedoms bestowed by the first amendment, often perceived as safeguarding the individual from the will of the group, also serves to protect the group against the tyranny of the state. Having just emerged from an impassioned struggle for independence, the framers appreciated that effective political change could best be achieved through collective activities, and further recognized that the right to associate for political purposes was a natural concomitant of the right to espouse political views.
If our system of government is to remain responsive to the will of the people--as it must--the untrammeled freedom to join together in pursuit of political goals must be secured against state intrusion, and our political organizations must retain the freedom to invite into their ranks those citizens with whom they wish to associate.
Mindful of these tenets, we are called upon today to reconcile the tension between a political party's right to self-determination and a state's interest in regulating primary elections. Specifically, we are faced with a challenge by the Republican Party of the State of Connecticut against a state law that prohibits individuals with whom the party members wish to associate from participating in the party's primary. The district court, 599 F.Supp. 1228, held that the state-mandated closed primary substantially interfered with Republican Party's right of political association by determining who is eligible to participate in the Party's candidate selection process. In addition, the court concluded that the interests proffered by Connecticut to support its state regulation were not compelling. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
Because the legal issues presented in this appeal are framed, to a large extent, by reference to political exigencies, we believe it would prove helpful to set forth the significant aspects of Connecticut's electoral scheme.
Pursuant to Connecticut law, potential candidates for electoral office are divided into three categories: those representing "major parties," those of "minor parties," and independents (or "petitioning parties"). 1 By virtue of its performance in past gubernatorial elections, the Republican Party is a major party. As such, its candidates are automatically accorded space on the general election ballot, while other candidates may have their names placed on the ballot only after fulfilling the petition requirements set forth in Secs. 9-453a through 9-453u. 2 Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 9-379.
In 1955, the Connecticut General Assembly enacted a "challenge" primary law, codified as Conn.Gen.Stat. Secs. 9-372 et seq., which authorizes each major party to select candidates to be nominated for electoral office. Party endorsements are made at state or district conventions, and only enrolled party members may vote to select those delegates who attend the convention. Id. Secs. 9-387, 9-390, 9-407. If a candidate is not opposed at the convention, he becomes the party's nominee in the general election and no primary election is held. Id. Secs. 9-408, 9-409. A candidate rejected by the convention, however, is eligible to challenge the endorsed candidate in a primary election if he has received on any roll call convention vote at least twenty percent of the votes of the delegates present and voting, and files a document with the Secretary of the State certifying that he has garnered the requisite vote total. Id. Sec. 9-400. Party primaries are held at the expense of the State, and the primaries for all major political parties in Connecticut are held on the same day, during the same hours and at the same polling places. Separate voting machines are used for each party on primary day.
Mindful of these aspects of Connecticut's primary election apparatus, we turn to the voting eligibility requirements, which constitute the crux of the instant appeal. Section 9-431 of the Connecticut General Statutes provides, in pertinent part:
No person shall be permitted to vote at a primary of a party unless he is on the last-completed enrollment list of such party in the municipality or voting district....
To enroll in a political party, a person must execute an application for enrollment form, requiring him to state his name, address, desired party affiliation, previous party affiliations within the past six months and the date on which he applied to remove his name from the membership list of the political party with which he was previously affiliated. Party enrollment lists are a matter of public record, Id. Sec. 9-55, and Connecticut does not require lists of unaffiliated voters to be available at the polls on primary day. Connecticut Public Act 84-118, which became effective on January 1, 1985, allows an unaffiliated voter to participate in a party's primary election if he enrolls in that party prior to twelve o'clock noon on the last business day before the primary. Id. Secs. 9-56, 9-57. Finally, a voter enrolled in a party may at any time apply to have his name removed from that party's enrollment list, and to transfer to the enrollment list of another party. He may not, however, vote in any primary for six months following the date of his application for transfer. Id. Sec. 9-59.
The Connecticut Republican Party (the "Party") is comprised of individuals who associate for the common advancement of political beliefs and ideas. Its ultimate goal, as stated in the preamble to its Constitution, 3 is to "seek out, designate, and secure the election of qualified candidates for public office at the Federal, State and Local levels of government," who will implement its policies, philosophies and programs. Correlative to this objective, the Party seeks to nominate those candidates who enjoy the broadest spectrum of popular support and, therefore, appear most likely to obtain electoral success at the polls.
In recent years, however, the Republican Party has been thwarted in its quest for electoral success. A contributing factor to its repeated November failures may be that there are far more registered Democrats than Republicans in Connecticut. Recent party registration figures underscore the magnitude of this disparity. At the time this action was commenced, 4 Connecticut had 659,268 registered Democrats, 425,695 registered Republicans, and 532,723 registered but unaffiliated voters.
Animated by the Democratic Party's statistical hegemony, and keenly aware of Connecticut's untapped reservoir of unaffiliated voters, the Republican Party's State Central Committee in August 1983 established a subcommittee to study the Party's existing rules, and devise a strategy to improve the Party's chances for future electoral success. After analyzing the Party's electoral plight, the subcommittee concluded that allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in Republican Party primaries would increase the Party's chances of winning general elections, ensure the nomination of candidates with greater bipartisan support, broaden the involvement of unaffiliated voters in the electoral process and strengthen the two-party system. To measure the support of this proposal among the Party's rank and file, State Republican Chairman Thomas D'Amore called a state party convention to consider, inter alia, "proposed changes [in party rules] to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in Republican Party candidate selection primaries."
On January 14, 1984, delegates to the State Republican convention approved an amendment to the party rules permitting unaffiliated individuals to vote in Republican Party primaries for the offices of United States Senator, United States Representative, Governor and the gubernatorial "underticket." 5 Specifica...
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