A victory for voter participation, but perhaps a temporary one: Ohio will appeal the trial court decision to the Sixth Circuit.
Rick Hasen’s not sure how the ruling will fare on appeal:
Will this ruling be upheld on appeal in the Sixth Circuit? The answer is not clear. I had expressed uncertainty about how the court would rule in this case and Ned Foley expressed greater skepticism of the Obama campaign’s arguments here. There are reasonable arguments over whether the Court picked the right level of scrutiny to apply, and whether the judge applied the scrutiny he said he was applying. Further, there is a major debate about what Bush v. Gore requires, and the Sixth Circuit may have to go en banc to resolve the meaning of the case: does it in fact require (1) equal treatment of all voters in terms of opportunities to vote; and (2) a kind of “non-retrogression” principle, whereby the state may not remove a method of easier voting once it has used it in a past election?
Via Election Law Blog.