The district judge ruled that the First Amendment is not sufficient grounds to stand on.
The Supreme Court refused to block the removal of congressional candidate Samuel Ronan from Ohio’s Republican primary ballot. After state election officials disqualified Ronan for intentionally misrepresenting his party affiliation, he filed a federal lawsuit asserting that his First Amendment rights were infringed upon by the state’s utilization of his own speech against him.
Ronan, who ran for chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2017, maintained that he did not lie about his political affiliation on his application, saying that elected officials in the past had party deviations, such as former President Ronald Reagan and President Donald Trump. However, the Ohio secretary of state provided evidence of Ronan’s “strategy of running Democrats as Republicans in deeply red districts.”
Southern Ohio Chief District Judge Sarah Morrison rejected the lawsuit, stating that the First Amendment does not protect candidates who submit fraudulent declarations of candidacy.
Judge Morrison wrote, “It cannot be the case that a State must allow a candidate on a partisan ballot even if he lied about his party affiliation simply because the First Amendment is implicated.”
The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had agreed with the chief district judge.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For state election officials as they seek to ensure the legitimacy of candidates’ applications.
- For federal justices and judges as they preside over legal proceedings involving election integrity and security.
- For candidates to honestly represent their political party and platforms, and for discernment for voters as they consider them.
Sources: Just the News, Fox News, MSN, The Dispatch
