McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission

In McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334, 356 n.21, 131 L. Ed. 2d 426, 115 S. Ct. 1511 (1995), the Supreme Court considered an Ohio statute that prohibited the distribution of anonymous campaign literature. 514 U.S. at 336. A person was fined under that statute for distributing anonymous leaflets that opposed a local tax proposal. See McIntyre, 514 U.S. at 337-38. The Supreme Court concluded that the statute was unconstitutional, however, it noted that these disclosure requirements rested on different and less powerful state interests than the state interests in campaign expenditure reporting. See id. at 356. The Court noted that while the federal reporting requirements may be constitutional on their face, they may not be constitutional as applied if disclosure could reasonably subject the spender to threats, harassment, or reprisals from government officials or private parties. The Court has also distinguished independent expenditure reporting requirements applied to candidate elections or lobbyists from reporting requirements applied to ballot measures. McIntyre, 514 U.S. at 356 & n.20.