Ray v. Blair

Ray v. Blair, 343 U.S. 214 , is a major decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. It was a case on state political parties requiring of presidential electors to pledge to vote for the party's nominees before being certified as electors. It ruled that it is constitutional for states to allow parties to require such a pledge of their candidates for elector, and that it was not a breach of otherwise qualified candidates' rights to be denied this position if they refused the pledge. It officially defined state electors as representatives of their respective states, not the federal... government. The case was argued on March 31, 1952 and decided on April 3, 1952. Ray, Chairman of the Alabama Executive Committee of the Democratic Party, had the duty of certifying elector candidates for Alabama's state Democratic Primaries. Ray refused to certify Edmund Blair as an elector because, while Blair was qualified for the position in all other regards, he had refused to take a pledge that promised, in part, he would support "the nominees of the National Convention of the Democratic Party for President and Vice-President of the United States.
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