Term Limits Leadership Council v. Clark

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Term Limits Leadership Council v. Clark is a lawsuit filed in federal court (the Southern District of Mississippi) in 1997 by the Term Limits Leadership Council. The lawsuit challenged Mississippi laws (Miss. Code Ann. §23-17-57-3) that (a) made it illegal for anyone to circulate an initiative petition until the circulator was a registered voter in the state, and (b) made it illegal to pay petitioners by the signature.

On August 28, U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee, a Reagan appointee, struck down both parts of the law for violating petitioners right to free speech. It was the fourth 1997 decision striking down state laws that made it harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot.

External links

• Ballot Access News report of the decision
• State bans on out-of-state petition circulators
• Citation of TLLC v. Clark by Nebraska attorney general in 2007