Court Admits Ruling May Do ‘Severe and Irreparable Harm’ to Ohio Libertarian Party

The
Ohio Libertarian Party (LPO) gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl
was shot down by a U.S. circuit court yesterday and is taking his
case to the Supreme Court as a final bid to get on the ballot.

As a recap, earlier this year Earl got enough signatures to
run, but Secretary of State John Husted, a Republican, had him
disqualified on a technicality: The person Earl hired to collect
signatures failed to list the LPO as his employer. The would-be
candidate has taken the case through the court system claiming that
the signature collector’s First Amendment rights, specifically his
right to not declare his employer, are being denied by Husted.

The previous judge before the case said the burden of listing an
employer was minimal, and sided against Earl.

The 6^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday stood
by that ruling and doesn’t seem to care much about the impact this
could have on the LPO. The Associated Press
reports:

The three-judge panel acknowledged the decision could present
“severe and irreparable harm” on the party and likely undermine its
status as a ballot-qualified party in the state.

“We note that the LPO has struggled to become and remain a
ballot-qualified party in Ohio, and we acknowledge that this
decision entails that their efforts must continue still,” the
opinion said. “But we also note that we decide one case at a time,
on the record before us. In so doing, we preserve the First
Amendment’s primary place in our democracy over the
long run.”

Regaining that status would require jumping through some serious
hoops,
thanks to a recent Republican-crafted law. Earl is making
an appeal to the Supreme Court, though that won’t yield anything in
time for the May 6 primary.

Earl accuses
the Ohio GOP of deliberately setting up barriers to his candidacy
out of fear that he will take votes away from Gov. John Kasich.
Significantly (and perhaps surprisingly), the courts
agree. The district court that previously sided against the
Libertarian acknowledged that “operatives or supporters of the Ohio
Republican Party” orchestrated a plot against him. The circuit
court reaffirmed this yesterday,
lumping the Democratic Party into the conspiracy, too.
This meddling and undermining competition in elections has no legal
bearing on the very serious issue of failing to meet a
technicality.