The views of Judges Rymer, Alarcon, and Fernandez notwithstanding (
see Geary III, 911 F.2d at 295–315 (opinions of Rymer, J., dissenting and Alarcon, J., dissenting)),
section 6(b) is a patently unconstitutional abridgement of political parties' free speech rights. The effort, however well-meaning, to protect voters from themselves by silencing those voices perceived to be the most influential during a campaign cannot be reconciled with the free marketplace of ideas contemplated by the First Amendment.
See Buckley, 424 U.S. at 49, 96 S.Ct. at 649. As Justice Marshall succinctly put it, “the prospect that voters might be persuaded by party endorsements is not a
corruption of the democratic political process; it
is the democratic political process.”
Geary IV, 501 U.S. at 349, 111 S.Ct. at 2353 (Marshall, J., dissenting).