Today, the Ninth Circuit issued opinions in two Oregon cases involving significant consitutional questions. First, in Caruso v. State of Oregon, reversing the district court, the Ninth Circuit held that ORS 280.070(4)(a), which requires that ballots for initiatives proposing local option taxes bear a warning that the measure "may cause property taxes to increase more than three percent," does not violate the U.S. Constitution, in particular the First Amendment and the Due Process clause. Second, in Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. American Coalition of Life Activists, the most recent appeal in the civil racketeering case against abortion protesters, the Ninth Circuit held that the amounts of punitive damages awarded to the plaintiffs exceeded the constitutional limit on such awards and remitted those amounts.
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