By Richard L. Hasen[*]
Introduction
After the 2008 presidential election season concludes, no doubt there will be calls to change the presidential nomination system, especially on the Democratic Party side. Already before the current season began, Congress explored legislation to prevent the “frontloading” of the primary process through the creation of a series of rotating regional primaries.[1] The close contest for the Democratic Party nomination this winter and spring revealed additional issues beyond the timing question. Critics have argued that the caucus system used in some states is unfair and poorly administered,[2] that the unequal weighting of votes for purposes of delegate selection violates democratic principles,[3] and that the fate of the Democratic Party presidential nomination should not turn on the votes of unelected “superdelegates.”[4]
It is certainly possible that the parties themselves will change their nomination rules in response to these criticisms, as the parties have done in the past. But in the event the parties cannot agree on changes, Congress may consider legislation imposing changes to make the nomination rules comply more with the typical “one person, one vote” norms applicable to general elections. At the extreme, Congress might require presidential nominations to occur through state-by-state direct primaries conducted under one person, one vote principles. Here, I explore the question whether Congress has the power to impose such primaries on the parties and the states if the parties, states, or both object. I do not consider the wisdom of such legislation.
As I explain, the main argument that parties can advance against Congressional (or for that matter, state) imposition of a direct presidential primary is that it violates the First Amendment associational rights of political parties to determine their method for choosing their standard bearers.[5] This argument would appear to have much force given recent Supreme Court cases recognizing the parties’ rights to overrule the states on the open or closed nature of political primaries. On the other hand, the Court has also accepted as “too plain for argument” a governmental power to require parties to use direct primaries to choose their nominees to assure fairness of the process.[6] So resolution of the question is uncertain.
