On July 11, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in No Labels Party of Arizona v Fontes, 24-563. It reversed the U.S. District Court and said that No Labels has no right to tell the Secretary of State to block anyone from filing for partisan office in the No Labels primary. Here is the 28-page opinion. The author is Judge Salvador Mendoza, Jr, a Biden appointee. It is also signed by Judge Holly A. Thomas and Judge Anthony Johnstone, who are also both Biden appointees.
The opinion is a defeat for the freedom of association rights of political parties, but a win for the ability of voters to vote for the candidate of their choice. The chief precedent that influenced the decision is a 2008 decision of the Ninth Circuit that said the Alaskan Independence Party had no right to exclude a particular candidate from filing to run in the AIP’s primary. The new No Labels decision, minimizing party rights, is philosophically completely different from a recent Eleventh Circuit remand opinion that said the Catoosa County Republican Party (in Georgia) may have the right to exclude candidates from its primary.
The Ninth Circuit No Labels opinion boosts the right to vote. It says on page 23, “Candidate exclusion burdens voters”, and also, in footnote nine, “Such candidate selection necessarily includes the right to vote for minor parties, a right that is ‘neavily burdened if that vote may be cast only for ‘two old, established parties.'” These quotes will help the minor party plaintiffs who are challenging the California top-two system (California, like Arizona, is in the Ninth Circuit).
Here is a news story about the decision.
