EspressoPundit

     Ruminations of an over-caffeinated political junkie

The Nucular Political Option

BEING UNENCUMBERED BY A LAW DEGREE I'm free to spend my espresso-filled days ruminating on the law without having to bother with actually looking stuff up.  So I've been thinking.  Why do the Democrats have to tolerate DINOs like Zell Miller while Republicans have to work hard to defeat RINOs like Slade Mead?

The Supreme Court has gradually expanded the freedom of speech to include a freedom of expression.  This in turn has led to a well-recognized freedom of association, which leads to a freedom of non-association.  That's why the Boy Scouts can prevent homosexual troop leaders from joining.  For more information on the history of these cases with citations, click here.

If a group is involved in "expression" it has a Constitutional right to select it's own membership.  That much is clear. 

Aren't political parties clearly expressive associations?  If so, why can't the Georgia Democratic Party kick Zell out?  And what is stopping Bob Fannin from going RINO hunting?

Obviously there are due process considerations.  But let's leave them aside for the moment.  I believe that the Parties have an existing, but undiscovered, Constitutional right to reject the membership of elected officials who use the Party to get elected, but ignore Party positions and discipline.  If so, this would be a seismic shift in the power structure between elected officials and the major parties. 

I'll let the lawyers out there prove me wrong and I'll gladly print the citations. 

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