Republican Party of Minnesota v. White

Minnesota's constitution required popular election of state judges, but since 1974 a rule known as the "announce clause" barred judicial candidates from announcing their views on disputed legal or political issues, with severe penalties for violations. Gregory Wersel, a lawyer and member of the Republican Party of Minnesota (plaintiff), distributed campaign literature in 1996 criticizing several Minnesota Supreme Court decisions while running for the court, prompting (and then a dismissed) ethics complaint; he ran again in 1998 and sought an advisory opinion on enforcement of the clause, which the ethics board found doubtfully constitutional but declined to resolve. Wersel then sued White (defendant), a Minnesota official, seeking a declaration that the announce clause violated the First Amendment. The district court and court of appeals both upheld the clause.