COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A federal appeals court has overturned an Ohio law restricting campaign contributions by physicians who treat Medicaid patients.

A provision in the 1978 state law meant as an anti-corruption tool bars the doctors from contributing to candidates for state attorney general or county prosecutor, the officials who prosecute Medicaid fraud.

Friday's ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati opens the door to thousands of doctors who treat Medicaid patients to begin making political contributions.

Nine Cleveland-area doctors who filed the 2010 lawsuit had argued that the law unfairly assumed that Medicaid doctors are fraudsters who must not be allowed to contribute to candidates.

A spokesman for the Ohio Secretary of State, the target of the lawsuit, said he couldn't immediately comment.