The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ohio’s highest court must reconsider the congressional districting of the state that the Ohio Supreme Court previously ruled unlawful.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a summary judgment, a decision made without listening to oral arguments, reversing the Ohio Supreme Court’s judgment from last July that the congressional districting process unfairly favored the Republican Party.
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The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the August 8th special election to vote on Ohio State Issue 1 aimed at altering the process of how initiative petitions can propose constitutional amendments can legally proceed as scheduled.
Ohio State Issue 1 if approved by voters would mandate a 60 percent approval percentage for any future constitutional amendments, call for signatures from all 88 counties, and do away with the opportunity to “cure” petitions by collecting additional signatures if necessary.
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The Ohio Ballot Board approved new ballot language for State Issue 1 following an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the board rewrites the proposal to address issues in the ballot text of the previously approved version.
The new version approved by the Ballot Board in a 3-2 vote split down party lines summarizes for voters what State Issue 1 would do if passed, updated a section of text that the state Supreme Court said misrepresented the new threshold of voter signatures that amendment campaigns must amass from each Ohio county to be eligible for the ballot and removed the term “any” from the title of the ballot wording.
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The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Ohio Ballot Board must rewrite some of the language that will appear as State Issue 1 before voters on the August special election ballot.
In the decision issued by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy and Justices Pat Fischer, Pat DeWine, and Joe Deters the Ohio Ballot Board (OBB) is to address issues in the ballot text, including one that they said misrepresented the new threshold of voter signatures that amendment campaigns must amass from each Ohio county to be eligible for the ballot.
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Eighteen state attorney generals have signed onto a brief filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost trying to overturn a lower court’s preliminary injunction on the state’s Heartbeat Act which blocks the majority of abortions once a fetal heartbeat is found.
Yost filed the 20-page brief on Monday at the Ohio Supreme Court saying that the high court should dismiss the preliminary injunction on enforcing the state’s Heartbeat Act because the plaintiffs are clinics and not patients.
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The Ohio Supreme Court has formally accepted an appeal by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost in a case involving the state’s six-week abortion ban.
The court announced on Tuesday morning that it will only consider two of the three legal issues Yost asked the court to consider: whether he has the right to appeal a lower court’s decision to put the heartbeat law on hold and whether abortion clinics have “standing” or the legal authority to challenge the law in the first place.
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Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy assigned Matthew Byrne, a Twelfth District Court of Appeals judge, this week to preside over a state appeal of a preliminary injunction on Ohio’s abortion law.
Byrne takes over for newly appointed Ohio Justice Joe Deters, who recused himself after the abortion clinic plaintiffs argued that he couldn’t rule on the state’s heartbeat bill ban because he was an original defendant on the case when serving as Hamilton County Prosecutor.
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According to former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor , a group seeking to overhaul Ohio’s redistricting procedure plans to put a constitutional amendment before voters in November 2024.
Last year, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected maps produced by Ohio’s Redistricting Commission on numerous occasions. O’Connor sided with the Democrats in redistricting lawsuits despite the GOP holding a one-seat majority.
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Taking her ceremonial oath of office on Wednesday, Ohio’s new Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy promised “a new day” at the high court and could cast the deciding vote on crucial topics in the state like abortion and redistricting.
Kennedy, who becomes the second female justice to preside over the state’s highest court, said she didn’t initially picture the moment.
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Attorney General Dave Yost is requesting that the Ohio Supreme Court reinstates the heartbeat law as readily as possible, which blocks the majority of abortions once a fetal heartbeat is found.
In accordance with the 2019 Ohio law, doctors are not permitted to perform abortions once heart activity has been identified, or around six weeks into a pregnancy. The law went into effect the same day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24th, 2022.
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