The Supreme Court denied the request by Democrats to reinstate a restraining order that had been placed on the Trump campaign by a federal judge in an order, an order that was later blocked by an appeals court panel. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg included a statement in the denial that noted that Ohio law already prohibits the voter intimidation tactics that the original order blocked the Trump campaign from committing.
SCOTUS denies Dems’ request to reinstate TRO on Trump camp in Ohio voter intimidation case pic.twitter.com/ZNIAIoleWB
— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) November 7, 2016
The move came in a lawsuit filed by Ohio Democrats late last month alleging that the Trump campaign — along with the Ohio Republican Party, Trump-ally Roger Stone and his group Stop the Steal — were encouraging illegal voter intimidation tactics. Similar lawsuits were filed by state Democratic parties elsewhere in the country.
The federal judge presiding over the Ohio case placed a temporary restraining order on the Trump campaign and Stone on Friday, but not the Ohio GOP, as he said there was not enough evidence to merit an order against it. The order prohibited the Trump campaign, Stone and his group “from conspiring to intimidate, threaten, harass, or coerce voters on Election Day.”
The Trump campaign appealed the order to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, and a panel of appellate judges stayed the order on Sunday, prompting the Democrats’ emergency application to the Supreme Court later that evening.
Legal observers noted Ginsburg’s apparent participation in the stay denial, as her criticisms of Trump over the summer (which she later walked back) prompted some to wonder whether she would have to recuse herself from any Trump-related elections case.
