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Requiring Meaningful Review for Keeping an Initiative Off the Ballot

Robert Timothy Reagan
October 6, 2023

Schmitt v. Husted (Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., S.D. Ohio 2:18-cv-966)
As an election approached, a district judge enjoined local election-board discretion—reviewable only by a writ of mandamus—to keep an initiative off the ballots. The court of appeals, however, concluded that mandamus relief was not so insurmountable as to require federal judicial intervention.
Subject: Ballot measures. Topics: Ballot measure; getting on the ballot; attorney fees.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.