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Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal of Former Ohio House Speaker’s HB1 Bribery Scheme
On April 27, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.
By not taking up the appeal of the House Speaker’s appeal, his federal racketeering conviction and 20-year prison sentence is upheld. The court’s decision was issued without comment.
Note that the court also rejected the appeal of co-defendant Matt Borges, a former lobbyist and Ohio Republican Party chairman serving a five-year sentence.
As reported previously in March of 2023, House Speaker Larry Householder was convicted in March 2023 for accepting a $60 million “pay-to-play” scheme funded by FirstEnergy Corp.
The funds were used to elect political allies and pass House Bill 6, which provided a $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout for two nuclear power plants in Ohio.
Householder’s defense team argued the contributions were standard political donations and that no explicit quid pro quo agreement existed, claiming the conviction chilled free speech.
Short of a presidential pardon or some executive action to commute his sentence, the former House Speaker’s next legal steps appear limited.
