On March 31, U.S. District Court Judge Judith Herrera ruled that New Mexico cannot tell political parties that they can only nominate people who are registered members of that party. Woodruff v Herrera, 1:09-cv-449. The case was brought by Alan Woodruff, a registered member of the Green Party, but the decision applies to all political parties, major and minor alike. Here is the 31-page decision. The part about whom parties may nominate starts on page 24.

The basis for the decision is the language in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said, “Were the state to provide that only Party members might be selected as the Party’s chosen nominees for public office, such a prohibition of potential association with nonmembers would clearly infringe upon the rights of the Party’s members under the First Amendment to organize with like-minded citizens in support of common political goals.”

This is only the second lawsuit to have struck down a state law that told parties they may not nominate a non-member, since the U.S. Supreme Court issued that opinion. The first such lawsuit was in Colorado state court in 1988, and that was won by the Democratic Party. Many years later, that outcome was useful when, in 2010, the Constitution Party was permitted to choose Tom Tancredo as its candidate for Governor. Although Tancredo had registered with the Constitution Party shortly before the party nominated him, Colorado had previously had a duration of membership requirement that would have blocked the party from choosing him if it had not been for the 1988 court decision and the changes to the statute that were made as a result.