On April 9, the Catoosa County (Georgia) Republican Party filed a lawsuit in state court to remove four candidates from the May 21 Republican primary ballot. They are running for County Commission and three of them are Republican incumbents. The Catoosa County Republican Party believes it has a freedom of association right to exclude candidates from its primary ballot if the party organization believes they are not loyal to the party’s principles.

It is true that federal courts in Georgia have permitted the Republican Party in the past to control which presidential primary candidates appear on the party’s ballot, but the section of the law on presidential primaries differs in that regard from the section of the election law governing other office.

The Catoosa County Republican Party may have developed its philosophy by watching Alabama. In Alabama the law has long given parties complete control over who may appear on party primary ballots, and every year the Alabama Republican Party rejects candidates from its primary for ideological reasons, or because a candidate gave money or an endorsement in the past to a nominee of another party or an independent candidate. Catoosa County does not border Alabama but it is physically close to the Alabama border.