Thread: Are Trump delegates bound to support Trump at the convention?

Are Trump delegates bound to support Trump at the convention?

By Jonathan H. Adler June 25 at 6:33 PM

Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president because he won a majority of delegates awarded in state primaries, caucuses and conventions. If every delegate votes in accordance with the primary results, Trump will be declared the Republican candidate at the GOP convention in Cleveland. But what if, in their heart of hearts, a majority of delegates do not actually support Trump? Are they bound? Not necessarily.

Existing GOP convention rules provide that delegates are bound by the results of their respective state primaries, caucuses or conventions. Yet as Eric O’Keefe and David Rivkin pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, these rules expire before the delegates must cast their votes.

Rule 16 of the Republican National Committee says primaries will be used to “allocate and bind” delegates. But that rule expires at the convention’s start. Though a majority of delegates could vote to adopt a binding rule at the convention, that’s unlikely.

It has happened only once before, in 1976, when loyalists of President Ford sought to block the insurgency of Ronald Reagan.

But what about state law? Some 20 states have laws on the books requiring state delegates to vote in accordance with the results of state primaries, caucuses or conventions. Yet these laws raise some interesting constitutional questions.

A lawsuit filed last week in federal court challenges the Virginia law that purports to bind Virginia delegates. According to the complaint and memorandum in support of the plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order, insofar as Virginia law compels delegates to vote in accordance with the state primary results, it violates the First Amendment. The plaintiff, Carroll Boston Correll Jr., seeks an injunction barring prosecution so that he may vote his conscience at the convention. As his complaint begins:

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees delegates to the Republican Party’s and Democratic Party’s national conventions the right to vote their conscience, free from government compulsion, when participating in the selection of their party’s presidential nominee. Nonetheless, Virginia law acts to strip them of that right, imposing criminal penalties on delegates who vote for anyone other than the primary winner on the first ballot at a national convention. That law cannot be sustained under the First Amendment or as a legitimate exercise of Virginia’s authority under the United States Constitution

As O’Keefe and Rivkin explain further:

State laws that purport to bind delegates can’t be enforced without violating the First Amendment. A political party is a private association whose members join together to further their shared beliefs through electoral politics, and they have a right to choose their representatives. The government has no business telling parties how to select their candidates or leaders: That would be a serious infringement of the rights to free association and speech.Such infringements can be upheld only if they are narrowly tailored to advance a compelling government interest. Yet states have no valid interest, much less a compelling one, in binding delegates. As the Supreme Court recognized inCousins v. Wigoda (1975): “The States themselves have no constitutionally mandated role in the great task of the . . . selection of Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.”

As Correll’s filings elaborate, the Supreme Court has repeatedly found that various state laws burden the associational rights of political parties and their members. These precedents support the principle that it is up to a political party — and not state legislatures — to determine how to select a party’s nominees.

If Correll’s suit is successful, it would eliminate one of the legal obstacles to replacing Trump as the Republican nominee. Given the decline of Trump’s poll numbers, and the candidate’s continued insistence on saying things that alienate key portions of the electorate (including many lifelong Republicans), dumping Trump is an option GOP convention delegates might want to have.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...he-convention/

First on CNN: Delegates Unbound cites Donald Trump in TV ad

By Tal Kopan, CNN
Updated 4:04 PM ET, Fri June 24, 2016

Washington (CNN)A group of Republicans pushing for delegates to be able to vote for and nominate someone other than Donald Trump at the convention this July is going up with a television ad nationally this weekend, the first such foray into TV.

The ad from Delegates Unbound, shared first with CNN, splices together clips of Republican icon President Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. In one such juxtaposition, Reagan says, "Use of force is always and only a last resort," while Trump says "I would bomb the s--- out of them," a statement he made referring to ISIS.

Trump is also shown saying he wouldn't bring God into the picture and when he apparently mocked a disabled reported by flailing his arms close to his body.

The ad closes with text: "GOP delegates: Follow your conscience" with a link to Delegates Unbound's website. Delegates Unbound
www.delegatesunbound.com/

CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

RELATED: Anti-Trump faction says it's raising cash

The group is run by a former top fundraiser for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Eric O'Keefe, and Republican strategist M. Dane Waters. It also supports a book by RNC committeeman Curly Haugland and public policy consultant Sean Parnell that was funded by by the Citizens in Charge Foundation, called "Unbound," which argues that delegates are free to vote their conscience despite rules binding most to state primary results.

Waters, who sits on the board of Citizens in Charge, has previously said the group planned to spend $2.5 million to $3.5 million total on its education and anti-Trump efforts. Citizens in Charge

The ad will run nationally on a broadcast and cable news network the group believes delegates will be watching from Sunday until Tuesday.

It's one of a handful of such efforts springing up, including a complementary group put together by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh and New Jersey operative Steve Lonegan. That group released a radio ad this week singling out an Iowa delegate, National Committeeman Steve Scheffler, for fighting delegate unbinding efforts, and encouraging listeners to call his number and urge him to allow them to vote however they like.

Lonegan said the group will be rolling out similar ads in about a dozen states over the next few weeks.

Unruh also emailed a letter to all of the Rules Committee members on Friday outlining the changes she wants to make to the platform and the legal precedent supporters of such a move believe back up their argument.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/24/politi...-donald-trump/

Delegates File Lawsuit Challenging Binding Rules at RNC Convention

Virginia Law Binding State Delegates to Donald Trump Thrown Out

It's sad to see sour grapes and sore losers carrying on this way when all they really want is open borders, free trade treason and a religious theocracy. Shame on them and shame on anyone who gives them a dime or the time of day.