CYNTHIA BROWN; CARLOS BUFORD; JENNY SUE ROW v. DAVID YOST, in his official capacity as Ohio Attorney General - Articles

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CYNTHIA BROWN; CARLOS BUFORD; JENNY SUE ROW v. DAVID YOST, in his official capacity as Ohio Attorney General

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Apr 9, 2025

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ON MOTION TO LIFT THE STAY and REPLY: Mark R. Brown, CAPITAL UNIVERSITY, Columbus, Ohio, Oliver Hall, CENTER FOR COMPETITIVE DEMOCRACY, Washington, D.C., for Appellees.

Attorneys 2: ON RESPONSE: T. Elliot Gaiser, Zachery P. Keller, Katie Rose Talley, OFFICE OF THE OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellant.

Judge(s): MOORE, BUSH, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Columbus

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has eight times rejected a proposed summary of a proposed constitutional amendment, preventing its proponents from circulating a petition and collecting signatures needed to place it on the ballot. Each time, Yost concluded that the petition summary was not a fair and truthful summary of the proposed constitutional amendment. The district court held that this likely violated the ballot- initiative proponents’ First Amendment rights and entered a preliminary injunction ordering Yost to certify two ballot initiative summaries proposed by Plaintiffs here. However, upon Yost’s request, the district court stayed the preliminary injunction pending appeal. Because we agree with the district court that Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights were likely violated here, and because the other stay factors do not weigh in Yost’s favor, we GRANT Plaintiffs’ motion to lift the stay and LIFT the stay entered by the district court.

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