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Quote of the day

Tuesday was an historic day for the United States Supreme Court. Screw the D.C. gun case! More Dictalicious was an opinion they handed down in the case Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party. That case involved a challenge to the structure of the Washington State primary election system. At issue was allows candidates to list their party preferences on the ballot. While this sounds innocent on its face, the problem arises when voters confuse "preference" with "endorsement." In other words, Joe Crazypants may want to be associated with the Democratic Party, but the Party may not to associate itself with that candidate. In a 7-2 the Court sanctioned this primary system, rejected the political parties' claim of freedom of association.

OK here's why it warrants a post on this blog.

The Chief Justice wrote in his concurring opinion:

If the ballot is designed in such a manner that no reasonable voter would believe that the candidates listed there are nominees or members of, or otherwise associated with, the parties the candidates claimed to ?prefer,? the I?872 primary system would likely pass constitutional muster. Assuming the ballot is so designed, voters would not regard the listed candidates as ?party? candidates, any more than someone saying ?I like Campbell?s soup? would be understood to be associated with Campbell?s.

To which Justice Scalia responded in dissent:

And finally, while THE CHIEF JUSTICE earlier expresses his awareness that the special character of the ballot is what makes these cases different, ante, at 2, his Campbell?s Soup example seems to forget that. If we must speak in terms of soup, Washington?s law is like a law that encourages Oscar the Grouch (Sesame Street?s famed bad-taste resident of a garbage can) to state a ?preference? for Campbell?s at every point of sale, while barring the soup company from disavowing his endorsement, or indeed using its name at all, in those same crucial locations.

N.B. This is the first time in Supreme Court history that Oscar the Grouch has been mentioned in an opinion. Justice Scalia is nothing if not hilarious.

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).