Can the Democratic Party ignore Florida's primary?

Florida Democrats filed suit against the national party for imposing sanctions against the state for its early primary.

from the October 16, 2007 edition

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"It's one thing if you have a reasonable basis for making minor adjustments based on the goals of the Democratic Party," he said. "But it's completely different to say all 4 million-plus votes count for zero."

Because party primaries are often run and financed by government, courts have set some limits. In a series of rulings from the 1920s to 1950s known as the "white primary cases," for instance, the Supreme Court banned racial restrictions on who could vote.

Lawsuit's potential impact

If even parts of the Florida suit are successful, experts say, it could have far-reaching implications for the balance of power between states and the parties over the primary calendar. "Depending on how any injunction is crafted, parties could potentially lose some of their ability to regulate the primary process," said Michael Kang, an election law specialist at the Emory University School of Law.

The defendants – the DNC, its chairman Howard Dean, and Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning – have 20 days to file an answer to the lawsuit. It is unclear when a judge might rule.

The dispute has particular resonance in Florida, the site of the disputed 2000 presidential election, decided by the Supreme Court in favor of George W. Bush, the Republican, over Al Gore, the Democrat. The lawsuit calls the DNC sanctions a "monumental irony": "In the annals of modern politics, no national party has inflicted so devastating and sweeping a 'geographic discrimination' " against its own members.

The strong language suggests to some election-law specialists that the suit is as much a political exercise as a legal one.

"Fundamentally, lawsuits like this are about shaming the national political party into counting the votes," said Nathaniel Persily, a Columbia University law professor who reviewed an early draft of the lawsuit but is not involved with the case. "It seems inconceivable to me that the Democratic convention will lock its doors and leave the Florida delegation outside."

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