The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a challenge to a New Jersey election law that allows candidates to use a six-word ballot slogan.
Eugene Mazo, a constitutional law professor at Rutgers, maintains that the law denied him his First Amendment right to free speech – and said that violation bolsters candidates backed by the party machine.
Mazo tested the law in runs for Congress in the 10th district in 2020 and the 8th district in 2022.
U.S. District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson tossed Mazo’s lawsuit in 2021, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the ruling last fall.
Mazo sought to use the slogan “Supported by the Governor” in the Union County portion of the 8th; Gov. Phil Murphy had already endorsed Robert J. Menendez for the seat. He sought to use “Endorsed by the New York Times” in Hudson.
But then-Division of Elections director Robert Giles rejected both slogans, allowing Mazo only to use the “Professor. Lawyer. Author. Immigrant. Proud Newarker” slogan that he had filed in Essex. Giles told Mazo that he could not use the slogans without the consent of Murphy and the New York Times, respectively.
(Mazo replaced “Endorsed by the New York Times” with “Endorsed by the N.Y. Times.” He substituted “Supported by the Governor” with “Endorsed by the Washington Post,” a newspaper that is not incorporated in the state.)
The U.S. District Court agreed with Giles. Last summer, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Freda Wolfson dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mazo arguing that a requirement to get the consent of a party organization to use their ballot slogan was unconstitutional. Wolfson said that Mazo couldn’t “plausibly” claim that the statute violated his First Amendment rights.
Judge Cheryl Ann Krause of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit later wrote that “New Jersey has struck a proper balance between the rights of voters, candidates, and third parties on the one hand, and the need to ensure order and fairness on the ballot on the other.”
In the 2022 contest for the 4th district, Republican Robert Shapiro was permitted to swap out his original slogan, “Let’s Go Brand*n – FJB” with “Let’s Go Brand*n” after election officials explained that “FJB” referred to a particular individual – in this case, an acronym widely known to mean “Fuck Joe Biden” – and that he would need Biden’s permission.
Shapiro, a lawyer and perennial candidate, was challenging Rep. Christopher Smith (R-Manchester) in the Republican primary, but ultimately got kicked off the ballot for having insufficient valid signatures.