A federal judge on Saturday blocked key portions of Ohio’s new law restricting lawful permanent residents, visa-holders and others from contributing to statewide ballot issue campaigns.
The injunction came one day before the law was to take effect….
Ohio’s House Bill 1 passed earlier this year, incorporating what’s already federal law to the state level, prohibiting foreign citizens from contributing to political campaigns.
However, it went further in that it also prohibits lawful permanent residents, granted permission by the government to live in the U.S. in perpetuity, from contributing to issue campaigns or candidates. And it prohibits organizations from knowingly accepting any funds from a foreign national or lawful permanent resident.
Cincinnati area Rep. Bill Seitz, the bill’s sponsor, had raised concerns about the amendments being added, saying they left the law vulnerable to being overturned. He said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then a federal district court judge, wrote in a 2011 opinion that there would be “substantial questions” about whether Congress could ban political donations by permanent residents….