Federal Judge Clears Path For Colorado GOP To Reclaim Primary Control

By Jesse Paul | The Colorado Sun

he Republicans who have long sought to stop their party from participating in Colorado’s primaries, mainly out of opposition to how unaffiliated voters are now allowed to cast ballots in them, received a major boost late Tuesday when a federal judge ruled that the burden for opting out is unconstitutionally high. 

U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer found the requirement that 75% of the Colorado GOP or the Colorado Democratic Party’s central committee must support opting out of the primaries before it can happen “constitutes a severe burden on the major parties’ right to association and is therefore unconstitutional.”

“The opt-out provision creates a severe burden on the party’s association right by making it highly unlikely that an opt out motion will succeed,” Brimmer wrote in response to a lawsuit brought by the Colorado GOP against the state. 

The right to association is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

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