From the LPO website:
The legal challenge from the Libertarian Party of Ohio to the “John Kasich Re-election Protection Act” has not yet been decided, in spite of confusing news reports published Monday.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson ruled against a motion in the case Monday that was brought by the Ohio ACLU, Green Party, and Constitution Party that challenged SB 193, but has not yet ruled on the LPO’s challenge, said Mark Brown, attorney for the LPO.
“We remain optimistic about our chances of success,” said Brown, noting that the ACLU-led challenge was on federal First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds, while the LPO challenge concerns state constitutional issues.
Passed hurriedly as an emergency issue with only Republican votes in 2013, SB 193 seeks to remove all political parties—other than Republicans and Democrats—from Ohio’s election process, then force them to “re-qualify” by gathering tens of thousands of signatures under a complicated set of petitioning rules.
Watson blocked SB 193 from taking effect in 2014, and is expected to issue a ruling on the law’s future soon.
From other election law news in Ohio:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/03/17/ohio-politics-now-police-community-relations.html
A look at what is happening in Ohio politics and policy today:
A federal ruling yesterday found Secretary of State Jon Husted liable in a voting case.
So what exactly does that mean?
Dispatch Public Affairs Editor Darrel Rowland explains: “Must public officials assess a new law to determine whether it’s constitutional before carrying it out? That’s the upshot of a federal court ruling yesterday declaring Secretary of State Jon Husted liable for enforcing a law passed by the Ohio General Assembly that later was declared unconstitutional.”
The law in questions required petition circulators to be Ohio residents, “almost identical to one on people who circulate presidential-elector petitions, which was struck down as unconstitutional seven years ago,” Rowland writes.
“When the General Assembly issues a new law, we go on the assumption that the law is constitutional,” said spokesman Joshua Eck.
What’s unclear is if Husted will have to pay damages in the case.