Supreme Court Rejects Emergency Appeal, Handing GOP Big Win

The Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday denied an emergency appeal from Samuel Ronan, effectively preventing him from running in Ohio’s Republican congressional primary after state officials removed him from the ballot.

The court rejected Ronan’s request without comment, and no justice publicly dissented — a common outcome when the justices handle emergency applications.

Ronan had attempted to run as a Republican in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Mike Carey. When filing his candidacy paperwork, Ronan declared he was a member of the Republican Party and pledged to support its principles. The Franklin County Board of Elections initially approved his bid.

But the filing soon drew scrutiny after a Republican voter challenged Ronan’s eligibility, arguing he was not a genuine member of the GOP. Critics pointed to Ronan’s political background — including a previous run for chair of the Democratic National Committee — as evidence that his Republican candidacy was not credible.

The board ultimately split along party lines on whether to keep Ronan on the ballot. That deadlock forced Frank LaRose to cast the deciding vote, siding with those seeking to remove Ronan from the race.

Ronan challenged the decision in court, but Sarah Morrison upheld the ruling, concluding that the state’s interest in protecting the integrity of its elections outweighed Ronan’s constitutional claims.

“It cannot be the case that a State must allow a candidate on a partisan ballot even if he lied about his party affiliation simply because the First Amendment is implicated,” the Trump-appointed judge wrote.

A three-judge federal appeals panel later declined to restore Ronan’s name to the ballot, prompting him to take the case to the Supreme Court alongside Ohio voter Ana Cordero, who argued she wanted the opportunity to vote for him in the GOP primary.

“The First Amendment violation in this case warrants immediate injunctive relief,” they wrote in their emergency filing.

The pair also disputed accusations that Ronan misrepresented his political affiliation.

“But Applicant Ronan did not lie,” they argued in their filing before the high court.

Ohio officials pushed back forcefully. In a response submitted to the justices, attorneys for the office of Dave Yost dismissed Ronan’s claim outright.

“There is just one problem,” the filing stated. “He is a Democrat.”

In a final reply to the court, Ronan and Cordero warned that preventing his candidacy could establish a troubling precedent by allowing election officials to judge a candidate’s political credibility.

The Supreme Court declined to intervene, leaving the lower court rulings intact and keeping Ronan off the Republican primary ballot.

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration Move on TPS

In a separate legal development this week, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration of President Donald J. Trump from ending immigration protections for thousands of Ethiopian nationals.

Brian Murphy ruled that the administration could not immediately terminate the Temporary Protected Status program for Ethiopians, finding that the government likely failed to follow required procedures under federal law.

The decision delays the end of protections for more than 5,000 Ethiopian nationals currently living and working in the United States.

The program, administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, allows individuals from countries facing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to remain in the United States temporarily.

Ethiopia was first granted Temporary Protected Status in 2022, and those protections were later extended through early 2026.

Shortly after taking office in January 2025, the Trump administration moved to terminate the designation, arguing that conditions in Ethiopia no longer met the legal requirements necessary to justify the program.

Officials said the decision followed a formal review of country conditions and consultations with federal agencies.

Murphy, however, concluded that the administration’s process likely failed to meet procedural standards established under the Administrative Procedure Act. His ruling pauses the termination while the case continues through the courts.

The judge previously issued a similar order in another case involving Ethiopian TPS holders.

Legal observers expect the Trump administration to appeal the decision.