Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus (573 U.S. 149)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 16, 2014 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 573 U.S. 149 · 134 S. Ct. 2334
- Docket
- No. 13-193
- Argued
- April 22, 2014
- Decided
- June 16, 2014
- Term
- October Term 2013
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas (wrote), Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Alito, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan
Oral argument transcript and advocates · Opinion on Justia
Opinion excerpt
Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners in this case seek to challenge an Ohio statute that prohibits certain "false statements" during the course of a political campaign. The question in this case is whether their preenforcement challenge to that law is justiciable-and in particular, whether they have alleged a sufficiently imminent injury for the purposes of Article III. We conclude that they have. I The Ohio statute at issue prohibits certain "false statement[s]" "during the course of any campaign for nomination or election to public office or office of a political party." Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 3517.21(B) (Lexis 2013). As relevant here, the statute makes it a crime for any person to "[m]ake a false statement concerning the voting record of a candidate or public official," § 3517.21(B)(9), or to "[p]ost, publish, circulate, distribute, or otherwise disseminate a false statement concerning a candidate, either knowing the same to be false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not," § 3517.21(B)(10).1 "[A]ny person" acting on personal knowledge may file a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission (or Commission) alleging a violation of the false statement statute. § 3517.153(A) (Lexis Supp. 2014). If filed within 60 days of a primary election or 90 days of a general election, the complaint is referred to a panel of at least three…
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