REHNQUIST, J., Concurring Opinion

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

456 U.S. 45

Brown v. Hartlage

CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF KENTUCKY

JUSTICE REHNQUIST, concurring in the result.

I agree that the provision of the Kentucky Corrupt Practices Act discussed by the Court in its opinion impermissibly limits freedom of speech on the part of political candidates in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Because, on different facts, I think I would give more weight to the State's interest in preventing corruption in elections, I am unable to join the Court's analogy between such laws and state defamation laws. I think Mills v. Alabama, 384 U.S. 214 (1966), affords ample basis for reaching the result at which the Court arrives, and I see no need to rely on other precedents which do not involve state efforts to regulate the electoral process.