Boone County, KY — Earlier this week the Institute for Free Speech filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, advising the court to rehear Boone County Republican Party Executive Committee v. Wallace en banc.   

The case involves a Kentucky law that prevents political parties from speaking for or against any ballot issues unless the parties form a separate political committee with separate funding raised specifically for that purpose. Last year, after initially obtaining an injunction from the Sixth Circuit, several local political parties used their general funds to create signs, mailers, and other campaign materials supporting two ballot issues in the general election.  

But when revisiting the case after the election, a divided Sixth Circuit panel upheld that law under the First Amendment, issuing a 2-1 decision that will stifle the parties’ ability to speak to citizens about ballot measures in the future.   

The Institute’s amicus brief emphasizes how the panel’s decision threatens the First Amendment rights of not just political parties in Kentucky, but all kinds of organizations that the government may target for similar treatment. In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court overturned nearly 20 years of legal precedent to hold that a law preventing “corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds” for electioneering violated the First Amendment. That’s because restricting how an organization can spend its general funds on political speech is inherently a restriction on constitutionally protected political speech, which is presumptively impermissible under the First Amendment.  

The Institute’s brief argues that the Boone County decision undermines Citizens United and reduces the historic case to mean “precisely nothing.” As the brief states, if the government can decide what kind of speech a political party can use its general funds for, what stops it from doing the same for a labor union or newspaper? The Sixth Circuit’s decision leaves a “gaping loophole in the most important campaign-finance decision of this century. And in doing so, the panel hands every government in this circuit a roadmap to maneuver around the First Amendment.”   

To read the full Institute for Free Speech amicus brief in Boone County Republican Party Executive Committee v. Wallace, click here. 

About the Institute for Free Speech

The Institute for Free Speech promotes and defends the political speech rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government guaranteed by the First Amendment.