Moderate Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) removed State Representative Scott Wiggam (R-Wayne County) on Thursday from his position as chair of the House Constitutional Resolutions Committee and the committee all together due to Wiggam signing a discharge petition for the Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment.
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On Wednesday, a group of Republican lawmakers filed a discharge petition on House Joint Resolution (HJR) 1 which aims to alter the process of how constitutional amendments can be proposed by initiative petitions.
A bill or resolution may be discharged from committee if it wins the support of a simple majority of House members (50 percent + 1). This implies that even if the resolution has not yet been approved out of committee or finished holding hearings, it would automatically advance to the floor for a vote if 50 representatives signed on.
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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday supported a prospective August election as a way to change the process of how initiative petitions can propose constitutional amendments.
Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced resolutions to raise the initiative petition voting threshold to 60 percent to amend the state Constitution.
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Alex Triantafilou, the newly elected head of the Ohio Republican Party, endorsed legislation on Thursday that aims to alter the process of how initiative petitions can propose constitutional amendments.
There are currently two pieces of legislation that Republican lawmakers have introduced this session to protect the state Constitution from out-of-state special interest groups.
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Republican Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Shanahan has announced her bid for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court in 2024. Shanahan is the first to announce her candidacy.
According to Shanahan, she is running for an Ohio Supreme Court Seat because she understands the proper role of the judiciary “interpreting the law, not legislating from the bench.”
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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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A recently proposed law that is now making its way through the Ohio Statehouse would lower the age requirement for an Ohioan to join the police department.
In Ohio, applicants must currently be 21 years old to become police officers, but Senate Bill (SB) 53 would lower that age limit to 18. Senators Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) and Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) have sponsored the legislation.
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The Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of radical pro-abortion activists that includes Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Ohio, the Abortion Fund of Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, along with the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, unveiled the language of their ballot initiative to enshrine abortion in the Ohio Constitution in the November general election on Tuesday.
The proposal would remove Ohio’s parental notification legislation when a minor wants an abortion, as well as the requirement that abortionists adhere to fundamental hospital health and safety standards. The proposal also aims to permit abortions far after babies have heartbeats and can feel pain.
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Two pro-abortion organizations announced Thursday plans to join forces in their ongoing fight against the constitutional rights of the unborn.
Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights plan to collaboratively file a ballot initiative to insert legalized abortion in the Ohio Constitution.
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On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed a lawsuit against the city of Columbus to protect the rights of Ohioans to keep and bear arms.
The filing follows the adoption of Ordinance 3176-2022 by the Columbus City Council, which forbade the use of certain firearm magazines in violation of Ohio law and the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.
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Ohio’s plea for a preliminary injunction to stop the city of Columbus’ most recent gun control measures was denied by a court in Fairfield County. According to Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein, the restrictions are now in place as of midnight on January 21st.
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A coalition of abortionists and pro-choice activists have announced their intent to file a ballot initiative to insert legalized abortion in the Ohio Constitution.
The group called Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom is a group formed by the left-leaning organizations the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, Abortion Fund of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, and others.
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An activist-led petition for marijuana legalization in Ohio has been formally resubmitted to the legislature by the Ohio Secretary of State, giving legislators four months to evaluate the change. Advocates may then gather more signatures to get the issue on the November ballot if legislators do not take action.
In a letter to legislative leaders, Secretary of State Frank LaRose stated that he had fulfilled his duty to introduce the reform proposal to the legislature on the first day of the new session and to begin the four-month timeframe for lawmakers to consider it.
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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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Governor Mike DeWine vetoed a bill on Thursday, that would prohibit local governments in Ohio from enacting any laws regarding tobacco or vaping products that are more strict than state law.
DeWine scheduled a press conference with health authorities to discuss the legislation rather than just vetoing it, calling youth smoking an “epidemic” made worse by commercially available flavored tobacco products.
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Ohio Republicans introduced a new resolution on Thursday that would require citizen-led constitutional amendments to gain a 60 percent supermajority at the ballot for passage.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Representative Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) initiated the “Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment,” which they say is designed to help protect the Ohio Constitution from continued misuse by special interest and out-of-state activists.
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A Columbus-based think tank this week filed its legal response in the Ohio Supreme Court in defense of a Blue Ash man who believes the state cannot make him pay Cincinnati income taxes for a period of time he actually worked from home.
The Buckeye Institute argued that a state law passed in March 2020 to allow jurisdictions encompassing an “employee’s principal place of work” to levy taxes on that worker even when he or she works from home is unconstitutional. Specifically, the institute notes that the federal Constitution’s dormant commerce clause in Article I, Section 8 disallows states to enact statutes that “unduly burden interstate commerce.” Buckeye attorneys also believe the Ohio Constitution constrains lawmakers’ ability to broaden cities and towns’ tax-collection power.
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Democratic officials who run the village of Yellow Springs, a progressive college town near Dayton, are persisting in their effort to legalize noncitizen voting.
Mayor Pam Conine (D) is pushing for the enactment of a state constitutional amendment that would actualize the policy. Yellow Springs voters approved a referendum in 2019 allowing dozens of noncitizen residents of the village to participate in local and state elections, but the measure never went into effect.
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Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins (D) this week indicated he will extend his hold on a significant Ohio abortion-restricting law for two additional weeks.
Jenkins’s decision prolongs the effect of a decision he made last week to obstruct the Heartbeat Act’s implementation, with the initial freeze to last two weeks. The state General Assembly passed and Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the bill (SB 23) in 2019. The legislation, which prohibits aborting unborn children who have detectable heartbeats, could not take effect until this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
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Chris Ronayne, the Democratic candidate for Cuyahoga County executive, said in a public forum this week that he would support Ohio’s municipalities allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections.
The former Cleveland city administrator and former president of University Circle, Inc., a community-development corporation, explained to attendees at the Global Cleveland panel discussion at Jukebox that he believed cities can use their home-rule powers to adopt that election policy.
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This week the Ohio Ballot Board finalized the wording of a referendum on a proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit noncitizens from participating in local and state elections.
A majority of Ohio voters will need to approve the measure during the November 8 election for the amendment to become law. The ballot question informs electors that the amendment would “require that only a citizen of the United States, who is at least 18 years of age and who has been a legal resident and registered voter for at least 30 days, can vote at any state or local election held in this state” and that the law would “prohibit local governments from allowing a person to vote in local elections if they are not legally qualified to vote in state elections.”
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Ohio voters moved a step closer to deciding if noncitizens can vote in local elections after the House on Wednesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would put the issue on the November ballot.
Supporters said House Joint Resolution 4 would close a loophole that could allow noncitizens to vote on local candidates and tax issues in cities and villages. If it passes the Senate, it could appear before voters in November.
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Monday morning on Always Right with Bob Frantz, weekday mornings on AM 1420 The Answer, host Frantz welcomed Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to the show to discuss the strategy of Democrats to ‘sue until their blue’ and violate the Ohio constitution.
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A student at Ohio University has filed a lawsuit against the school over its COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
“Everyone who wants to be vaccinated has been vaccinated at Ohio University,” Tyce Patt told The Ohio Star. “I believe it is not only wrong to force students to get an experimental Emergency Use Authorized vaccine to go to class, but also Illegal.”
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Two state lawmakers, the Ohio State Conference of the NAACP and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative filed a lawsuit Thursday that challenges the state’s recently passed Stand Your Ground law, claiming Republican legislators violated the state constitution.
The lawsuit claims GOP lawmakers added the measure to an unrelated bill and passed it an hour later without providing public notice or debate. Everytown Law, an organization with a New York City mailing address that litigates gun safety issues, is representing the four plantiffs, along with the Ohio law firm Bloomekatz Law.
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State and federal constitutions entitle Ohioans to protections, which remain in place even as the state implements seemingly prudent restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 22, the Ohio Department of Health issued its “Director’s Stay at Home Order.” This Order, like others before it, relies upon the delegation to the Ohio Department of Health of a sweeping power – never previously relied upon or analyzed by a single court in the history of the state – to exercise “ultimate authority in matters of quarantine and isolation.”
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The Senate Education Committee has been considering House Bill 154 (HB 154) for several months. The bill would eliminate all current academic distress commissions and repeal the law, prohibiting the formation of new ones. The purpose of academic distress commissions is to take over chronically failing school districts. The commissions were created by House Bill 70 (HB 70), the constitutionality of which is currently under consideration by the Ohio Supreme Court.
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The City of Centerville in Montgomery County wants the Ohio Supreme Court to consider it a “victim” based upon the “rights of victims of crime” in the Ohio Constitution.
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State Sen. Lou Terhar (R-Green Township) notified Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) he was resigning from the Senate in a letter dated August 30, 2019.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Opponents spoke out against House Bill 239 (HB 239) Tuesday evening at the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee meeting. The bill, jointly sponsored by Republican State Rep. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville) and Democratic State Rep. Erica Crawley (D-Columbus), would eliminate four of the seven end-of-course exams. Two of…
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State House Speaker Ryan Smith says Ohio’s Constitution is under attack. Special-interest groups have been asking voters to amend the state’s constitution as a way of bypassing the legislature on certain issues, he said in a radio interview with Jo Ingles of the Statehouse News Bureau. Smith said Ohio’s founding fathers did not…
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