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John Schickel, et al. v. George C. Troutman, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 17-6456, 17-6505 · judgment May 30, 2019


Certiorari denied · December 9, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

  1. Whether incumbents and candidates for political office have standing to assert First and Fourteenth Amendment claims regarding: i) pure campaign speech restrictions that prohibit others from soliciting support to their campaign, and ii) combined legislative ethics and campaign finance restrictions that prohibit certain other persons from associating with those campaigns and candidates through, among other things, campaign donations?

  2. Whether this Court should overrule the Buckley v. Valeo “closely drawn” scrutiny framework and apply strict scrutiny to First and Fourteenth Amendment claims involving combined legislative ethics and campaign finance restrictions which are, in actuality, speech restrictions?

  3. Even if Buckley v. Valeo is not overruled, should strict scrutiny nevertheless be applied where campaign speech restrictions as well as combined legislative ethics and campaign finance restrictions violate fundamental rights, and otherwise make impermissible classifications based on the exercise of fundamental rights?

  4. Whether the challenged Kentucky campaign speech restrictions and combined legislative ethics and campaign finance restrictions survive whatever level of scrutiny the Court deems applicable under the First and Fourteenth Amendments?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Robert Albert Winter Jr.
The Law Office of Robert A. Winter, Jr.

For respondent
La Tasha Arnae Buckner
Kentucky Office of the Governor

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
19A69

Proceedings

  1. Dec 09 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Nov 20 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/6/2019.
  3. Nov 18 2019
    Reply of petitioners John Schickel, et al. filed.
  4. Nov 06 2019
    Brief of respondents George C. Troutman, et al. in opposition filed.
  5. Oct 03 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 6, 2019)
  6. Jul 30 2019
    Response to application from respondent Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission, dated July 24, 2019, received.
  7. Jul 22 2019
    Application (19A69) denied by Justice Sotomayor.
  8. Jul 12 2019
    Application (19A69) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from October 9, 2019 to December 8, 2019, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.