On April 15, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer upheld the Utah law that lets a candidate petition onto a primary ballot. The Utah Republican Party had challenged this law, saying that the party doesn’t want anyone on its primary ballot who doesn’t show substantial support at a party caucus. Utah Republican Party v Cox, 2:16cv-38.
The decision says that the party’s freedom of association is not impaired by the Utah law. The decision says that the Republican Party already has the ability to prevent anyone but a registered Republican from voting in its primaries. Furthermore, only registered Republicans can petition to get on the party’s primary ballot, and only registered Republicans may sign such petitions. Finally, the decision notes that there is no Republican Party bylaw expressly denying primary ballot access to a candidate who petitions.
It is not known if the Republican Party will appeal.
Doesn’t the Republican party basically have unilateral control of the government in Utah? If they dislike this so much why not modify or repeal it?
The party officers and the state legislators from that same party frequently disagree with each other about policy on political party affairs. In California, the political parties sued the state in 1984 to overturn state laws that told political parties where to hold their state convention, that they had to rotate the state chair between a northerner and a southerner every two years, that they had to be organized on a county basis.
The legislators of both major parties were horrified by this lawsuit. The parties won the case unanimously, however. They won in US District Court, Ninth Circuit, and US Supreme Court 9-0.
Right… issues that are caused by the two-party system. Both major parties try to be “big tents” and then have internal conflict. Fair enough. Really a perfect reason to back away from this two-party structure that we have though.