Justices stay out of Ohio voter-intimidation lawsuit
on Nov 7, 2016 at 3:23 pm
One day after the Ohio Democratic Party asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a federal district court’s order that barred the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from attempting to intimidate voters in the state, the justices denied the Democrats’ request. Perhaps because the result was sufficiently clear, or perhaps because the election is tomorrow, the court did not call for a response to the application from the Trump campaign. Justice Elena Kagan, the circuit justice for the 6th Circuit, referred the Democrats’ application to the full eight-justice court, which then rejected it.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had been highly critical of Trump in remarks to journalists earlier this year, issued a statement that accompanied the court’s order. Citing an Ohio law that defines “harassment” to include efforts to “obstruct, intimidate, or interfere with an elector in registering or voting,” she noted that she had voted to deny the Democrats’ request, “mindful that Ohio law proscribes voter intimidation.” In other words, state law already prohibits the conduct that the district court’s order would target, making an injunction unnecessary.
There were no other statements regarding today’s order, and there were no dissents noted from the order.
