On May 15, the California Senate passed SB 1322 by 24-16. It deletes some California laws (long ago held unconstitutional) that discriminate against Communist Party members. SB 1322 does not repeal any election laws that discriminate against Communists, but if SB 1322 is eventually signed into law, it may make it easier to delete such election laws in the near future. California is one of only six states that has laws that discriminate against Communists in elections. The other states are Illinois, Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania. None of the states enforce these laws; they were implicitly held unconstitutional in 1974 by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court. The California election laws (1) do not permit anyone to run for any office, partisan or non-partisan, if that person is a member of the Communist Party or has been in the last 5 years; (2) bar subversive parties from the ballot.
How soon before one party hack ANTI-Democracy gerrymander gang bans ALL other parties and independents — for national security reasons, of course — regardless of any mere words in any mere constitution ???
This is ironic since California has many communists serving in office. I suppose they get away with it by calling themselves Democrats.