Suddes Is the Ohio Supreme Court filled with activist judges?
If the Statehouse’s Bluster Cluster had its way, the Ohio House of Representatives would impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor — and the Ohio Senate would remove her from office.
That’s not going to happen—either House impeachment or a Senate trial. But the very idea speaks volumes about in-house Republican rage over fellow Republican O’Connor’s anti-gerrymandering votes on Ohio’s highest court.
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Three times, so far, O’Connor, once Summit County’s prosecuting attorney, later Ohio’s lieutenant governor, has joined the court’s three Democrats in killing General Assembly gerrymanders proposed by the GOP-run Redistricting Commission.
The commission is composed of five Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine, and two Democrats – state Sen. Vernon Sykes of Akron, and Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, of Upper Arlington.
And very likely, the court may soon issue a fourth, 4-3 ruling killing yet another General Assembly gerrymander proposed by the four of the commission’s five Republicans, unless Republicans succeed in getting federal judges to intervene. (And here you thought that Ohio conservatives don’t like federal judges sticking their noses into state business.)
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As it turns out, the calendar will do what the legislature won’t.
Ohio’s age limit for judges means that O’Connor must step down from the court on Dec. 31. Vying to succeed her are two (associate) justices now on the high court—Justice Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, who was once Ohio’s secretary of state, and Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican.
Funny thing is, for all the decades that Ohio’s Supreme Court was a faithful supporter of the status quo, no one—least of all the Republicans who have run the legislature—had many gripes.
Sure, in 1997, the court overthrew as unconstitutional Ohio’s “system” for funding K-12 public schools.
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But then, the high court stepped back and let the General Assembly dawdle for a generation before acting in any systematic way to address school funding.
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Meanwhile, the justices mostly looked the other way when the General Assembly abused the one-subject rule for legislation to log-roll favors for fat cats.
And neither Big Insurance or Big Utilities has had much to fear from the Ohio Supreme Court.
That’s just the way the Statehouse’s insiders like it. There was usually something congenial for the guys of Capitol Square’s lobbying shops.
But when, as in the gerrymander rulings, the Supreme Court bumped into the General Assembly’s La-Z-Boy seats, that stoked a problem because the legislature (at least lately) doesn’t see itself as one of three coordinate branches of Ohio’s government— executive, legislative and judicial.
Nope: As the legislature’s COVID-19 antics demonstrated, these days the General Assembly sees itself as the dominant state government branch, with DeWine’s executive branch a glorified complaint window and O’Connor’s judicial branch a high-end talk show.
For reasons that remain unclear—maybe, just maybe, because he’s seeking re-election —DeWine seems deferential to the GOP’s legislative caucuses. But the chief justice won’t play ball, and the boys don’t like it. Good for her.
MEANWHILE: For most Ohioans, Christmas arrives on Dec. 25. But for the leaders of Ohio communities, and their civic and cultural institutions, Christmas comes every election year at the Statehouse. That’s because, complete coincidence, election years are when the General Assembly packs the pork barrel—and writes and funds a statewide bricks-and-mortar capital improvements budget for Ohio.
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At the moment, Ohio’s money bin is awash in cash. That means 2022’s construction budget should offer plenty of election year groundbreakings – perfect for reelection publicity. That assumes, of course, that the bill is unveiled and passed before election day. That didn’t happen in 2020, when that year’s $2.13 billion capital improvements bill —known as Amended Substitute Senate Bill 310—didn’t reach DeWine’s desk until a month after the election.
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That delay likely won’t happen this year because, assuming Ohio ever finalizes state Senate and Ohio House districts for November’s election, a number of legislative incumbents will find themselves with new constituents.
And when it comes to funding museums and theaters and parks, there’s no such thing as bad pre-election publicity for General Assembly candidates.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. [email protected]
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