COLUMBUS - The Ohio Chamber of Commerce again faces potential fines of $25,000 for each day it refuses to reveal who bankrolled its television ads targeting a state Supreme Court justice during the 2000 election.
The high court yesterday unanimously refused to hear the appeal of Citizens for a Strong Ohio, a nonprofit arm of the chamber that the Ohio Elections Commission has determined was fueled by corporate cash.
The chamber could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutional question of whether the elections commission is violating the First Amendment right to free speech.
The chamber has maintained it did not cross the line between issue advocacy and election advocacy because its ads didn't expressly ask voters to elect or defeat a candidate.
"They're in contempt as of right now. They'll have to seek a stay before the U.S. Supreme Court," said Cliff Arnebeck, attorney for the Alliance for Democracy in Massachusetts, which brought the elections complaint.
The elections commission has issued subpoenas demanding the list of donors to the Strong Ohio campaign as part of the commission's investigation.The Ohio Chamber of Commerce succeeded in delaying imposition of the $25,000-a-day fine each time it appealed the ruling.
"It's important to all of us that the broad protection of the First Amendment be upheld in the face of what to some have been traditional thoughts as to what you can and cannot do in terms of political speech," said William Todd, the chamber's attorney.
"There has been a tremendous amount of attacks on the First Amendment in the political arena and there are probably more to come," Mr. Todd said.
The focus of the case is an ad depicting a gilded Lady Justice peeking from beneath her blindfold as cash weighed down one side of her scales of justice.
The ad suggested the votes of Justice Alice Robie Resnick, an Ottawa Hills Democrat, were influenced by campaign contributions from labor and trial lawyers.
The actions of Strong Ohio and similar "issue advocacy" groups have so permeated state Supreme Court elections over the last four years that four of the court's seven justices recused themselves from participation in the long-running case.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Resnick, Terrence O'Donnell, and Evelyn Lundberg Stratton were all beneficiaries or victims of such ads in their elections.
The court's decision is important because "it was a very large amount of money, some $4 million, and it was all secret, and it was plainly illegal," Mr. Arnebeck said.
Four appeals court judges were temporarily assigned to the court to hear this case along with sitting Justices Francis Sweeney, Paul Pfeifer, and Maureen O'Connor.
Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.
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