WASHINGTON - Buoyed by a favorable ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for two conservative organizations will ask a federal judge in Cincinnati to block enforcement of an Ohio election law that prohibits false statements in campaigns.

WASHINGTON � Buoyed by a favorable ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for two conservative organizations will ask a federal judge in Cincinnati to block enforcement of an Ohio election law that prohibits false statements in campaigns.

In a unanimous ruling written by Justice Clarence Thomas and released yesterday, the court concluded that Susan B. Anthony List and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes � known as COAST � can challenge the constitutionality of the state law before U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black.

Because resolution of the case and subsequent appeals could take years, attorneys for the two organizations in Cincinnati will ask Black to issue a preliminary injunction. If he agrees and his ruling isn�t reversed, the law will not be enforced during this election year.

�That would put an end to this stuff during the two or three years it takes to have a hearing with appeals,� said Christopher Finney, a Cincinnati attorney representing COAST.

Michael A. Carvin, a Washington attorney representing Susan B. Anthony List, confirmed that he, too, will ask for a preliminary injunction. Carvin called the high court�s decision �gratifying,� and he expressed eagerness in presenting the case before Black �to have this law invalidated so we can speak in the way the First Amendment intended.�

Although the justices did not strike down the Ohio law, they sent a clear signal that a majority on the high court thinks the law might violate the U.S. Constitution�s First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.

�The target of a false-statement complaint may be forced to divert significant time and resources to hire legal counsel and respond� to requests for information �in the crucial days leading up to an election,� Thomas wrote.

Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, said, �As the matter now proceeds in the lower courts, the Ohio attorney general�s office has a duty and will continue to defend the constitutionality of the statute.�

But Tierney, acknowledging that DeWine himself argued in legal documents filed with the high court that the Ohio law violates the U.S. Constitution, said that DeWine personally �will also continue to make the courts aware of his significant First Amendment concerns on this issue.�

It means that when Black hears the case, DeWine�s office will be defending the law while DeWine will argue that it is unconstitutional.

The justices� ruling invalidated decisions by a federal district judge and the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that neither organization could show it had been harmed by the law.

Susan B. Anthony List had wanted to pay for a billboard advertisement during the 2010 campaign accusing then-U.S. Rep Steve Driehaus, D-Cincinnati, of supporting the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions when he voted for the 2010 health-care law, known as Obamacare.

Driehaus� attorney threatened a lawsuit; the billboard owner refused to post the advertisement. Driehaus filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission, which found probable cause that the advertisement violated the Ohio election law.

Driehaus dropped the complaint after being defeated for re-election by Republican Steve Chabot. But Susan B. Anthony List and COAST sued in federal court, contending the law violates the Constitution.

Approved by the legislature in 1974, the law prohibits anyone from making �a false statement concerning the voting record of a candidate or public official� or distributing information about an opponent that is known to be false with reckless disregard for the truth.

A candidate can file a complaint with the elections commission, which investigates.

State and court records indicate that four people have been convicted under the law and none served time in jail. Those convictions took place in 1985 in Geauga County; two were overturned by a state court of appeals.

But Thomas wrote, �Commission proceedings are not a rare occurrence,� pointing out that the bipartisan panel �– three Democrats, three Republicans and one independent � handles as many as 80 complaints every year.

jtorry@dispatch.com