On August 9, two Ohio advocacy groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an Ohio law that makes it a crime for anyone to knowingly or recklessly make a “false” statement about a candidate or a ballot measure. Here is the cert petition. The case is Susan B. Anthony List and Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes v Driehaus, 13-193.

The lower courts had refused to make a decision about the constitutionality of the law. Ever since the law has existed, there have been many lawsuits in both federal and state courts to overturn this law, but the courts invariably find procedural reasons to abstain from deciding whether the law violates the First Amendment.