Private parties with public purposes: Political parties, associational freedoms, and partisan competition

This Article takes up the question of the proper constitutional role of pol itical parties following the Supreme Court's decision in California Democra tic Party v. Jones. The Article criticizes the Court's decision to strike d own the California blanket primary for its claimed violation of the right t o freedom of association held by political parties. Although the Article sh ares a critical stance toward the blanket primary, the central argument is that the Court's attempt to resolve the issue through a rights-based jurisp rudence both misses what might be truly objectionable about the blanket pri mary and is, by its own terms, so sweeping as to call into question any sta te regulation of political parties, even the requirement that they hold pri maries at all. Instead, the Article proposes an examination of the blanket primary under a functional analysis that asks first, what role political pa rties must play in maintaining a competitive political order, and second, w hether the blanket primary threatens to undermine the role of parties in su ch a competitive political arena.