Citizens for Tax Reform v. Deter
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
518 F.3d 375 (2008)

- Written by Joe Cox, JD
Facts
[Editor’s Note: The casebook The Law of Direct Democracy (Henry S. Noyes ed., 1st ed. 2014) erroneously gives the title of this case as “Citizens for Tax Reform v. Deter.” The correct title is “Citizens for Tax Reform v. Deters.”] Ohio allowed ballot initiatives but enacted a statute that made it a felony for petition circulators to be paid on any basis other than time worked. Citizens for Tax Reform (plaintiff) (CTR) was a group of Ohioans who had engaged a consulting firm to obtain signatures on an initiative petition for a 2005 vote on a constitutional amendment. CTR was to pay the firm on a per-signature basis, but after Ohio’s circulator-payment statute was enacted, the consulting firm repudiated its agreement and estimated a fee of an additional $300,000 to obtain the signatures, on the ground that its top circulators were either uninterested or reluctant to work in Ohio under the existing terms. CTR then filed a petition for a temporary restraining order, seeking a declaration enjoining the state from enforcing the statute. Ohio Secretary of State Joseph Deters (defendant) opposed this filing. The trial court ruled for CTR and issued the restraining order. The parties then filed competing motions for summary judgment. CTR argued that the ban significantly impinged on free-speech rights under the First Amendment and was analogous to a total ban on compensation that had previously been found unconstitutional. The state argued that the ban was less broad and was analogous to a handful of circuit cases that had upheld pay-per-signature bans on the basis that the extent of collision with the First Amendment was smaller and that an adequately pled state interest justified the limitation. However, the state did not explicitly connect petition fraud to pay-per-signature schemes. The trial court denied the state’s motion for summary judgment and granted CTR’s motion, and the state appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (McKeague, J.)
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