Super Delegates: Perfectly Legal And Quite Democratic

Last edited Mon Apr 11, 2016, 05:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Super delegates. People love to say that they're "undemocratic," or that they should reflect the will of the voters within a state, rather than being independent votes untied to any election result, etc.

Well, the SCOTUS thinks differently, and is on record supporting a political party's right to control its own nominating process.

This was adjudicated by the SCOTUS back 2000 when it struck down California's blanket primary system (CA Democratic Party v Jones).

In that case - which saw a 7-2 decision by the SCOTUS - the SCOTUS found that a blanket primary violated a political party's right of association, as guaranteed in the First Amendment. The Court found that "Proposition 198 forces political parties to associate with—to have their nominees, and hence their positions, determined by—those who, at best, have refused to affiliate with the party, and, at worst, have expressly affiliated with a rival. A single election in which the party nominee is selected by nonparty members could be enough to destroy the party." The majority opinion went on to say that Proposition 198 takes away a party's "basic function" to choose its own leaders and is functionally "both severe and unnecessary."

At the time, the SF Gate reported:

"The Supreme Court struck down California's system of "blanket primaries" yesterday, ruling that political parties have the right to exclude nonparty members from the process of choosing their candidates.

"The 7-to-2 decision invalidates state election rules -- in place since 1998 -- that permitted voters, regardless of party affiliation, to vote for candidates of any party.

"Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said forcing the parties to honor the votes of nonmembers amounted to a "stark repudiation of freedom of political association," and violated a party's ability to control its own nominating process and define its identity."

If political parties have the right to exclude non-party members from choosing their candidates, they certainly have the right to "control their own nominating process" as noted in the SCOTUS ruling. Super delegates are simply a way that a political party tries to control its own nominating process.