OCTOBER TERM, 1975
Opinion of BURGER,
C. J.
424 U. S.
little sensitivity to the danger it has so strongly condemned in other contexts. See, e. g., Everson v. Board
of Education, 330 U. S. 1 (1947). Up to now, this Court
has scrupulously refrained, absent claims of invidious
discrimination," from entering the arena of intraparty
disputes concerning the seating of convention delegates.
Graham v. Fong Eu, 403 F. Supp. 37 (ND Cal. 1975),
summarily aff'd, 423 U. S. 1067 (1976); Cousins v.
Wigoda, 419 U. S. 477 (1975); O'Brien v. Brown, 409
U. S. 1 (1972). An obvious underlying basis for this
reluctance is that delegate selection and the management
of political conventions have been considered a strictly
private political matter, not the business of Government
inspectors. But once the Government finances these
national conventions by the expenditure of millions of
dollars from the public treasury, we may be providing a
springboard for later attempts to impose a whole range of
requirements on delegate selection and convention activities. Does this foreshadow judicial decisions allowing the
federal courts to "monitor" these conventions to assure
compliance with court orders or regulations?
Assuming, arguendo, that Congress could validly appropriate public money to subsidize private political activity, it has gone about the task in Subtitle H in a
manner which is not, in my view, free of constitutional
infirmity.19 I do not question that Congress has "wide
discretion in the manner of prescribing details of expenditures" in some contexts, Cincinnati Soap Co. v. United
States, 301 U. S. 308, 321 (1937). Here, however, Congress has not itself appropriated a specific sum to attain
the ends of the Act but has delegated to a limited group
18 Cf. Terry v. Adams,
345 U. S. 461 (1953); Smith v. Allwright,
321 U. S. 649 (1944).
19 See generally remarks of Senator Gore, 112 Cong. Rec. 28783
(1966).
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