Green and DeFilippo have right to 'smoke-filled rooms'

Plainfield Dem Chair Jerry Green

UC Dem Chair Charlotte DeFilippo

If ever local Democratic honchos Assemblyman Jerry Green and Charlotte DeFilippo had a reason to knock back a toast, this may be it.

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that --

"A political party has a First Amendment right to limit its membership as it wishes and to choose a candidate-selection process that will in its view produce the nominee who best represents its political platform."

Further, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the unanimous opinion --

"None of our cases establishes an individual's constitutional right to have a 'fair shot' at winning the party's nomination."

The case was about how New York goes about selecting candidates for its Supreme Court judgeships -- which, the Times points out, "is not the state's highest court, but its basic trial court" -- who are nominated by the political parties and elected by the general voters.

The ruling will warm the cockles of clubhouse pols everywhere, who occasionally must face party members with the temerity to believe that democratic processes should have a role in candidate selection.

As Scalia said --

"'smoke-filled rooms' and domination by party leaders, have long been an accepted manner of selecting party candidates"

I can imagine more than one local activist thinking 'If only we could have smoke-filled rooms'.

---

• NY Times: "Justices Uphold New York’s Judge System"
• WashPost: "Court Lets 'Party Boss' Law Stand"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.