Taking Closed Primaries to Court
Every successful movement for change, from women’s suffrage to civil rights, has used litigation alongside legislation and ballot initiatives. Lawsuits expose unfair practices, shape how courts read the law, and push lawmakers and voters to act. While ballot initiatives and legislation focus on solutions, litigation goes straight at the problem of closed primaries. Open Primaries is building a litigation platform for the primary reform movement, partnering with attorneys and firms across the country to challenge closed primaries in federal and state courts. It works hand in hand with our grassroots state advocacy, so pressure builds on every front at once.
Why Closed Primaries
Are Vulnerable in Court
For decades, the parties have argued that primaries are private, members-only elections. That argument is getting harder to defend. Primaries are held in public buildings, on publicly owned machines, run by public employees, and paid for with taxpayer dollars, including the taxes of millions of voters who aren’t allowed to take part.
And the number of voters left out keeps growing. Nearly half of Americans, 47%, now identify as political independents, according to a 2026 CNN poll. Many state constitutions carry their own voting-rights protections, which is why most of our current cases are brought under state law.
How We Fight in Court
Three ways we use the courts to open primaries to every voter.
Legal Research
We study the constitutional foundations of each state’s primary system and publish the legal arguments behind this work, including Jeremy Gruber’s article in the Touro Law Review.
Bringing Cases
We work with plaintiffs and partner attorneys to challenge closed primaries directly, as we did in New Mexico in 2018 and Maryland in 2025.
Friend-of-the-Court Briefs
When other voters bring their own challenges, we file amicus briefs that add new legal arguments, from the U.S. Supreme Court to the Oregon Court of Appeals.
Current and Recent Cases
Where our litigation stands today. Each case page has the filings, timeline, and press coverage.
Filed in May 2025 on behalf of five unaffiliated voters, this state constitutional challenge argues that Maryland can’t keep funding primary elections that exclude nearly one million independents. The case is now on appeal. Read the case page.
Filed in 2025, this state constitutional challenge asks Pennsylvania’s courts to open the state’s closed primaries to independent voters. Plaintiffs include Ballot PA President David Thornburgh and radio host Michael Smerconish. Read the case page.
Mark Porter and the nonprofit Our Primary Voice argue that Oregon’s closed primaries violate the state constitution’s guarantee of the right to vote. After a trial court ruled for the state in March 2026, the case moved to the Oregon Court of Appeals, where Open Primaries filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs. Read the case page.
This case challenges Wyoming’s crossover voting ban and closed primary elections under the state constitution’s protections for the free exercise of the right to vote and equal political rights. The case is on appeal. Read the case page.
A federal challenge to Florida’s closed primaries that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where Open Primaries filed an amicus brief with new legal arguments. The Court declined to hear the case, but it brought closed primaries into serious discussion at the nation’s highest court. Read the case page.
New Mexico: The Case That Sparked a Movement
In 2018, the Open Primaries Education Fund sued New Mexico’s Secretary of State over taxpayer funding of the state’s closed primaries, with former state Attorney General Paul Bardacke leading the legal team. The lawsuit didn’t open the primaries on its own, but it revived reform when legislative momentum had stalled. In 2025, New Mexico passed a law opening its primaries to independent voters, and Open Primaries helped shape the bill so it would hold up against court challenges after it passed.
Help Build the Litigation Platform
These lawsuits are breaking new legal ground, and they take resources to sustain. Your support helps ensure millions of independent voters have the same right as everyone else: to vote in the elections their taxes pay for.