Ohio can ban green card holders and foreign nationals from donating to statewide ballot campaigns without violating the First Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled.
Ohio can enforce the ban while a lawsuit challenging it is pending, a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled on Sept. 16. The decision reverses an earlier ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson, who concluded that the ban violated the First Amendment rights of green card holders.
In 2024, Ohio lawmakers passed the ban on foreign donations to ballot campaigns in the same bill that allowed then-President Joe Biden to make the Democratic ballot in the Buckeye State. Ohio already bans non-citizens from donating to candidates.
The law was a reaction to Ohio’s successful 2023 abortion rights amendment, which received donations from a dark money group that had received money from a Swiss billionaire. Republican lawmakers were wary of a 2024 constitutional amendment to overhaul redistricting, which voters ultimately rejected.
The new law makes it a crime for non-citizens to donate to campaigns and a felony for repeat offenses. The law also punishes organizations that accept donations from foreign nationals and green card holders.
Judges Raymond Kethledge and Eric Murphy, who were appointed by Republican presidents, ruled that Ohio’s law likely did not violate the First Amendment rights of lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders. These individuals typically have more rights to engage in politics.
But they acknowledged it was a tough call.
“Whether some governmental interest is ‘compelling’ as a policy matter and whether some law is sufficiently (if not perfectly) ‘tailored’ to advance that interest will often depend on value judgments as to which many Americans will disagree. The proper result thus will ultimately be ‘in the eye of the beholder,'” they wrote.
They did conclude that Ohio’s law targeted individuals because of their foreign status and not because of the their speech’s content.
But Judge Andre Mathis, who was appointed by Biden, dissented. He wrote that: “This law tramples on the First Amendment free-speech rights of lawful permanent residents.”
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, celebrated the ruling.
“The General Assembly was right to ban this threat to not only our election integrity but also our national sovereignty. This is a victory for patriotism, honest elections and the rule of law,” he said in a news release.
The Sixth Circuit sent the case back to the initial judge for further review, including whether the law is too vague to be enforced.
State government reporter Jessie Balmert can be reached at jbalmert@gannett.com or @jbalmert on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio can ban foreign donations to ballot campaigns, appeals court rules
Reporting by Jessie Balmert, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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