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Roberts Court Upholds Free Speech at the Polls. For Now.

June 18, 2018

by Timothy Sandefur
June 18, 2018

Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the First Amendment rights of voters who want to wear their Tea Party T-shirts when they vote. That’s good news, of course. But as they say, the devil’s in the details—or, in this case, the lack of details.

As I explain over at Ricochet, the opinion is another example of Chief Justice John Roberts’ tendency to say too little—issuing rulings that say not much more than “this is unconstitutional” without providing the kind of legal guidance that courts are expected to give us. The result is likely to be more litigation, and, in the long run, more of the “judicial activism” that it seems Roberts is trying to avoid.

Timothy Sandefur is Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute.

 

 

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