Skip to main content
Supreme Court Case TrackerThe Court, in plain English

Emergency application

Review of ballot summaries

David Yost, Attorney General of Ohio v. Cynthia Brown

Denied
No. 24A970Stay applicationFiled by a state or local governmentPresented to Justice KavanaughFrom United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

What did the Court do?

The Court denied the request on April 22, 2025: the lower court's ruling stays in effect while the appeal continues.

Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, and Justice Kavanaugh would have ruled the other way.

Filed Ruled 12 days after filing

What's being asked

Ohio Attorney General David Yost asks the Supreme Court to pause (stay) a federal district court order blocking Ohio's review of ballot-initiative summaries. Amendment proponents Cynthia Brown, Carlos Buford, and Jenny Sue Rowe challenged the review rule. Ohio law requires the attorney general to check summaries for fairness and truth before supporters circulate signature petitions. The lower court said this review violates the First Amendment, which protects speech and other rights. It issued a preliminary injunction (an early order blocking enforcement); Yost argues Ohio may review the summaries as part of its initiative process.

What the Court did

The Court refused to pause the lower-court order (denied the stay) and wiped out Justice Kavanaugh's earlier pause (vacated it). The emergency ruling does not decide whether Ohio's review law violates the First Amendment. The order does not state the full vote; Justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh would have given Yost the requested pause.

  • Dissented
  • Vote not published
Dissenting · 3recorded against the Court's order
  1. Thomaswould grant
  2. Alitowould grant
  3. Kavanaughwould grant
Vote not published · 6the order does not say how they voted
  1. Roberts
  2. Sotomayor
  3. Kagan
  4. Gorsuch
  5. Barrett
  6. Jackson
The order records the positions of 3 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Half of 82 rulings on applications where the Court asked for a response came 10 to 26 days after filing, and the median was 17 days; this one was ruled on 12 days after filing.

What it means

This temporary ruling decides only whether to pause the district court's order, not whether Ohio's review rule is constitutional. The district court's order blocking the review is no longer paused, and the case continues in the Sixth Circuit. The docket lists no related Supreme Court case on the main question and no argument date.

Sources

Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 24A970. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.

Checked October 3, 2026