No Labels party can’t stop Arizona members from running in local elections
Edvard Pettersson
(CN) — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said that No Labels, a centrist political party, can't stop its members in Arizona from competing in local and national elections, even if the party's leadership only wants to field candidates for the U.S. presidency and vice presidency.
In an unanimous decision, the appellate panel reversed a trial judge's permanent injunction that had prohibited the Arizona Secretary of State from accepting so-called statements of interests by No Labels of Arizona members who wanted to participate in last year's primary elections as the party's candidates for a number of local and national offices.
Arizona's interest in ensuring voter and candidate participation in the democratic process, in avoiding voter confusion, and in limiting opportunities for fraud and corruption, outweighed No Labels' freedom of association rights under the First Amendment, the panel said in the ruling written by U.S. Circuit Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr.
"No Labels attempts to assert top-down control by dictating who may be on its ballot," Mendoza, a Joe Biden appointee, said. "But a party does not have 'monolithic control over its own members and supporters.' In fact, we have long rejected the idea that political parties have the right to nominate 'whomever they want, however they want.'"
In order to maintain the integrity of the political process, the judge added, states may adopt election codes to “remove party nominating decisions from the infamous ‘smoke-filled rooms’ and place them instead in the hands of a party’s rank-and-file, thereby destroying ‘the corrupt alliance between wealthy special interests and the political machine.’”
The panel wasn't persuaded by No Labels' argument that it would be forced to stray from its objective to focus exclusively on the offices of president and vice president. Mendoza noted the party didn't run any candidate whatsoever for the 2024 general election, despite gaining party recognition for that purpose.
U.S. Circuit Judges Holly Thomas and Anthony Johnstone, both also Biden appointees, joined Mendoza on the appellate panel.
An attorney for No Labels Arizona didn't immediately respond a a request for comment on the ruling.
No Labels became an official Arizona political party in March 2023, and three months later, its three leaders sent a letter to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes saying it would only run candidates for president and vice president in 2024, and nominate those candidates via committee, rather than holding a presidential primary.
Despite the stated mission of the party — to provide American voters with an alternative presidential option to what was anticipated to be Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden — five people filed notices of interest to run under the No Labels party in non-presidential races in Arizona.
Party officials sued in October 2023, claiming Fontes had violated state law and the party’s First Amendment right of association by refusing to prevent those candidates from running under the party against its wishes.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, a Barack Obama appointee, blocked Fontes from recognizing those candidates in January 2024, and Fontes appealed. He warned that the ruling could keep the nearly 19,000 members of the No Labels party from voting in a primary, and the precedent could allow party bosses to decide who can run for office from any party.
At a January hearing on the Arizona' secretary of state's appeal of the injunction, Johnstone called No Labels’ decision not to run down-ballot candidates a “bait and switch of the voters.”
“You gathered 50,000 signatures promising the voters a primary, and then you didn’t give them a primary,” the judge said.