Benjamin N. Cardozo

“ Whatever power of exclusion has been exercised by the members of the committee has come to them, therefore, not as the delegates of the party, but as the delegates of the state. Indeed, adherence to the statute leads to the conclusion that a resolution once adopted by the committee must continue to be binding upon the judges of election though the party in convention may have sought to override it, unless the committee, yielding to the moral force of numbers, shall revoke its earlier action and obey the party will. Power so intrenched is statutory, not inherent. ”

“ Some of the states have undertaken to convert the direct primary into a legally regulated election. In others, Texas included, the primary is conducted largely under party rules. Expenses are borne by the party; they are met chiefly from funds obtained by assessments upon candidates. A number of states (eleven perhaps) leave the determination of one's right to participate in a primary to the party, with or without certain minimum requirements stated by statute. In 'Texas the party is free to impose and enforce the qualifications it sees fit,' subject to some definite restrictions. ”

“ We recall at this point the wording of the statute invoked by the respondents. 'Every political party in this State through its State Executive Committee shall have the power to prescribe the qualifications of its own members and shall in its own way determine who shall be qualified to vote or otherwise participate in such political party.' Whatever inherent power a state political party has to determine the content of its membership resides in the state convention. ”

“ Such authority as the state of Texas has to legislate concerning party primaries is derived in part from her duty to secure order, prevent fraud, etc., and in part from obligation to prescribe appropriate methods for selecting candidates whose names shall appear upon the official ballots used at regular elections.
Political parties are fruits of voluntary action. Where there is no unlawful purpose, citizens may create them at will and limit their membership as seems wise. The state may not interfere. White men may organize; blacks may do likewise. A woman's party may exclude males. ”

“ According to the soundness of their principles and the wisdom of their policies they serve a great purpose in the life of a government. But the fact remains that the objects of political organizations are intimate to those who compose them. ”

“ It recognizes power in every political party, acting through its executive committee, to prescribe qualifications for membership, provided only that none shall be excluded on account of former political views or affiliations, or membership or nonmembership in any nonpolitical organization. ”

“ They are not acting in matters of merely private concern like the directors or agents of business corporations. They are acting in matters of high public interest, matters intimately connected with the capacity of government to exercise its functions unbrokenly and smoothly. ”

“ A party whose last candidate for Governor received 100,000 votes must select its candidate through a primary election. Where a party candidate has received less than 100,000, and more than 10,000, votes, it may designate condidates through convention or primary, as its executive committee may deter mine. A written petition by a specified number of voters may be used in behalf of an independent or nonpartisan candidate. ”

“ If any political party as such desires to avail itself of the privilege of designating candidates whose names shall be placed on official ballots by the state, it must yield to reasonable conditions precedent laid down by the statutes. ”

“ As rivals for popular favor they strive at the general elections for the control of the agencies of the government as the means of providing a course for the government in accord with their political principles and the administration of those agencies by their own adherents. ”

“ The respondents, the judges of election, declined to furnish the ballot or to permit the vote on the ground that the petitioner was a negro, and that by force of the resolution of the executive committee only white Democrats were allowed to be voters at the Democratic primary. ”

“ They do not concern the general public. They directly interest, both in their conduct and in their success, only so much of the public as are comprised in their membership, and then only as members of the particular organization. They perform no governmental function. ”

“ Delegates of the state's power have discharged their official functions in such a way as to discriminate invidiously between white citizens and black. Ex parte Virginia, supra; Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60, 77, 38 S.C.t. ”