On April 22, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the stay in Brown v Yost, 24A970. This is a win for the initiative process. The issue is whether Ohio violates the First Amendment by stifling initiatives before they can begin. Ohio says the petition can’t proceed until the Attorney General approves the description of the initiative that will be printed on the petition. The U.S. District Court had enjoined the system after the Ohio Attorney General rejected eight versions of the language, which wasted so much time, the initiative couldn’t be circulated.

Then the U.S.. District Court had stayed its own order. But recently, the Sixth Circuit voted 2-1 to dismiss the stay. But then on April 10 the U.S. Supreme Court had temporarily restored the stay. Now, today, the Court has ended the stay. The vote was 6-3. Justice Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh would have kept the stay in place.