''United States v. Classic'', 313 U.S. 299 (1941), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that the United States Constitution empowered

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

to regulate

primary elections Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

and

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

nominations procedures, and that the constitutional "right of participation" extended to primary elections "is protected just as is the right to vote at the election, where the primary is by law made an integral part of the election machinery, whether the voter exercises his right in a party primary which invariably, sometimes or never determines the ultimate choice of the representative.". The case centered on a 1940 Democratic primary election in Louisiana, in which 26-year-old

Hale Boggs Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. (February 15, 1914 – disappeared October 16, 1972; declared dead December 29, 1972) was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the House ma ...

was running for a seat in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. Five Boggs allies who worked as election commissioners were convicted of changing 97 votes for his primary opponents into votes for Boggs. (Boggs won the primary by more than 8,000 votes and went on to a long career in Congress, including stints as

House majority leader Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, also known as floor leaders, are congresspeople who coordinate legislative initiatives and serve as the chief spokespersons for their parties on the House floor. These leaders are ele ...

and as a member of the

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States P ...

.) Many observers assumed that the court had already ruled in '' Newberry v. United States'', that primary elections could not be regulated under the powers granted to Congress under Article I, Sec. 4 of the Constitution. But writing for the majority, Justice

Harlan Fiske Stone Harlan is a given name and a surname which may refer to: Surname * Bob Harlan (born 1936 Robert E. Harlan), American football executive *Bruce Harlan (1926–1959), American Olympic diver *Byron B. Harlan (1886–1949), American politician * Byron ...

argued that the ''Newberry'' court had been deeply divided on the issue and no majority had ruled one way or the other. Utilizing the reasoning by Chief Justice

Edward Douglass White Edward Douglass White Jr. (November 3, 1844 – May 19, 1921) was an American politician and jurist from Louisiana. White was a U.S. Supreme Court justice for 27 years, first as an associate justice from 1894 to 1910, then as the ninth chief ...

and Justice

Mahlon Pitney Mahlon R. Pitney IV (February 5, 1858 – December 9, 1924) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms from 1895 to 1899. He later served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Suprem ...

in their concurrent opinions in ''Newberry,'' Stone argued that the Constitution's protection of the right to vote cannot be effectively exercised without reaching to primary elections and/or political party nominating procedures. Though broadly noting that the constitutional right to vote extends to a party primary even when it "sometimes or never determines the ultimate choice of the representative," the Court offered no standard for determining whether a primary "was made an integral part of the election machinery." However, in '' Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia'', the Court clarified that this extends to virtually all primaries, noting that "Virginia, like most States, has effectively divided its election into two stages, the first consisting of the selection of party candidates and the second being the general election.".. In a "diffident" dissent, Justice

William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views, and is often ci ...

agreed that the Constitution gives the Congress the right to regulate primaries, but concluded that the U.S. criminal code did not explicitly outlaw the actions in question. "It is not enough for us to find in the vague penumbra of a statute some offense about which Congress could have legislated, and then to particularize it as a crime because it is highly offensive," Douglas wrote. "Sec. 19 does not purport to be an exercise by Congress of its power to regulate primaries."

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External links

* * {{caselaw source , case = ''United States v. Classic'', {{ussc, 313, 299, 1941, el=no , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/103531/united-states-v-classic/ , findlaw = http://laws.findlaw.com/us/313/299.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6644395565321548796 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/313/299/case.html , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep313/usrep313299/usrep313299.pdf 1941 in United States case law Civil rights movement case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Hughes Court United States elections case law United States federal civil rights crime case law Louisiana Democrats Louisiana elections Primary elections in the United States Democratic Party (United States) litigation

See also

References

External links