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Rideout v. Gardner

838 F.3d 65 (2016)

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Rideout v. Gardner

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
838 F.3d 65 (2016)

  • Written by Liz Nakamura, JD

Facts

In 2014, New Hampshire enacted a statutory prohibition barring voters from taking and publishing photographs of marked ballots, often referred to as ballot selfies (the ballot-selfie ban). After voting in the September 2014 primary election, New Hampshire State Representative Leon Rideout (plaintiff) took a photograph of his marked ballot and posted that photograph on social media. New Hampshire subsequently opened an investigation into Rideout for violating the ballot-selfie ban. Rideout sued William Gardner, the New Hampshire secretary of state, arguing that the ballot-selfie ban was facially unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment’s free-speech protections. The district court ruled for Rideout, holding that the ballot-selfie ban was an impermissible content-based speech restriction. Gardner appealed, arguing that the ballot-selfie ban was a content-neutral, prophylactic measure intended to further New Hampshire’s compelling interest in preventing future voter coercion and vote buying. Gardner admitted that the last corroborated incident of voter coercion or vote buying in New Hampshire had occurred in the 1800s.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Lynch, J.)

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