On February 24, the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion in Susan B. Anthony List v Driehaus, 14-4008. The opinion agrees with the U.S. District Court that Ohio’s law, making it a crime to knowingly make a false statement about a candidate, violates the First Amendment.

The Sixth Circuit had upheld this law back in 1991, but the new opinion overrides that precedent, based on intervening decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court on free speech. There had also been many other attempts to strike down the law in the 2000’s decade, but they always resulted in a decision that the plaintiffs lacked standing. In this case, earlier the lower courts had also ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing, but then the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that the plaintiffs in this case do have standing.

On February 23, the federal court that is hearing the North Carolina U.S. House redistricting lawsuit gave the plaintiffs time to file objections to the new plan drawn up by the legislature recently. The brief of the plaintiffs is due February 29. The state’s response is due by March 7, and the reply brief is due March 9. Harris v McCrory, m.d., 1:13cv-949.

If the plaintiffs persuade the 3 judges that the new plan is deficient, then it is likely the judges will prepare their own plan. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

Nevada Republican rules generally allocate delegates according to the share of the popular caucus vote, although candidates who poll less than 3.3% of the statewide vote are excluded. Based on the results as of 10 p.m., it appears that the following presidential candidates received delegates from Nevada: Donald Trump 13; Marco Rubio 7; Ted Cruz 7; Ben Carson 2; John Kasich 1.

Here is a detailed discussion of the Nevada Republican rules, from FrontloadingHQ.