Wednesday, March 5, 2014

21 "Friend of the Court" briefs filed in COAST challenge to Ohio Elections Commission

COAST has joined with the Susan B. Anthony List, a D.C advocacy group, to throw out Ohio's "False Claims" statute that empowers Ohio's Elections Commission and prosecutors to toss in jail for up to six months someone whose speech they subjectively categorize as "false."

The unconstitutionality of the law is apparent to most thinking Americans, but the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals bars Plaintiffs from even having standing to challenge the statute, rendering it immune from constitutional review in federal courts -- until now.

The United States Supreme Court has granted discretionary review of the 6th Circuit's misguided approach to constitutional review of the statute, and is holding a hearing on the matter on April 22.  As the Supreme Court accepts less than 1% of all petitions for review, this is a pretty big deal.

On Monday, briefs from "Friends of the Court" in support of COAST's position were due, and they flooded in from all over the County -- 21 in all.  The United States of America, the ACLU, the Christian Legal Society, the American Booksellers' Association, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law and more than a dozen others weighed in in support of COAST's position to require the federal courts to review COAST's challenge to the statute.

We will feature (as much as we can keep up) on this blog one of the briefs each day to allow our loyal COAST blog readers to appreciate the breadth of support throughout the nation to overturning this oppressive statute.

Let freedom ring.

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