Alaskan Independence Party v. Alaska

FISHER, Circuit Judge:

Aaska requires political parties to nominate candidates for the state’s general election ballot in a state-run primary, in which any registered member of a political party may seek the party’s nomination. Nominees are then chosen by the vote of party-affiliated voters and any other voters whom the parties choose to let participate. The Aaskan Independence Party (“AIP”) and the Aaska Libertarian Party (“ALP”) contend that these laws burden their associational rights in violation of the First Amendment because they force them to associate with candidates who, they claim,…