Ohio Ban on Foreign Nationals’ Campaign Donations Can Proceed

An Ohio law banning foreign nationals from contributing to ballot question campaigns can be enforced while a challenge is pending, a split federal appellate court ruled Tuesday, throwing out a lower court’s injunction in an unsigned opinion.

US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit judges Raymond Kethledge and Eric Murphy, who wrote a concurrence, believe the state is likely to defeat the plaintiffs’ First Amendment challenge to the law, noting that a separate Sixth Circuit panel made a similar finding last year in granting the state a stay on the preliminary injunction.

But, their concurrence says, “the ...