Committee to Impose Term Limits on the Ohio Supreme Court & to Preclude Special Legal Status for Members & Employees of the Ohio General Assembly v. Ohio Ballot Board

275 F. Supp. 3d 849
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedJuly 28, 2017
DocketCase No. 2:16-cv-1030
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 275 F. Supp. 3d 849 (Committee to Impose Term Limits on the Ohio Supreme Court & to Preclude Special Legal Status for Members & Employees of the Ohio General Assembly v. Ohio Ballot Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Committee to Impose Term Limits on the Ohio Supreme Court & to Preclude Special Legal Status for Members & Employees of the Ohio General Assembly v. Ohio Ballot Board, 275 F. Supp. 3d 849 (S.D. Ohio 2017).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

JAMES L. GRAHAM, United States District Judge

Ohio permits its citizens to amend the state constitution by proposing an amendment to electors through a petition, garnering sufficient signatures, placing the proposed amendment on the ballot, and having the proposed amendment approved by a majority of the electors that voted on the proposal. This is called the initiative process. Ohio law requires anyone who wants to amend Ohio’s Constitution through the initiative process to comply with a variety of rules. One of those rules is the single-subject or separate-petitions rule: each petition must contain only one proposed constitutional amendment. If a petition contains more than one amendment, the Ohio Ballot Board will split the petition into two or more petitions—as many as there are separate issues. Plaintiffs challenged that rule, alleging that the rule and the process Ohio uses to enforce it violate their rights to free speech and due process as well as the doctrine of separation of powers. But because the separate-petitions rule is constitutional, and Plaintiffs otherwise fail to state a claim over which this Court has jurisdiction, Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED. (Doc. 16).

I. Factual Allegations

First the Court will discuss the parties; second, the challenged statutes; third, plaintiffs’ initiative petition and its progress.

There are fivé Plaintiffs. The first is an unincorporated committee called the “Committee to Impose Term Limits on the Ohio Supreme Court and to Preclude Special Legal Status for Members and Employees of the Ohio General Assembly,” (the “Committee”). (Am. Compl. at ¶8, Doc. 14). The Committee has three mem[853]*853bers, all of whom are plaintiffs too. (Id. at ¶¶ 10-18). Sandra Wallace, a signatory to the preliminary initiative petition sponsored by the Committee, is the fifth plaintiff. (Id. at ¶¶ 15-16).

Plaintiffs sued seven Defendants: the Ohio Ballot Board; its five members, some of whom are members of the Ohio General Assembly; and the Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine. (Id, at ¶¶ 17-23).

Now for some background on the Ohio law challenged by Plaintiffs: the separate-petitions rule.

The Ohio Constitution vests the legislative power of the state in a “General Assembly consisting of a senate and house of representatives.” Ohio Const, art. II, § 1. But Ohio’s citizens “reserve the power ... independent of the General Assembly to propose amendments to the constitution and to adopt or reject the same at the polls.” Ohio Const, art. II, § 1. Ohio regulates the initiative process provided by its constitution.

The person who wants an-initiative on the ballot must first file a preliminary petition with the Ohio Attorney General. Ohio Rev. Code' § 3519.01(A). That petition must be signed by 1,000 qualified Ohio electors, include the full text of the proposed law or constitutional amendment, and include a summary of the proposed law or amendment. Id. Next, the Attorney General has 10 days-to certify whether the summary of the proposed law or amendment is a fair and truthful statement. Id. If the Attorney General certifies the law, he must then send it to the Ohio Ballot Board. Id. Within 10 days after receiving the certified petition from the attorney general, the Ballot Board must determine whether the initiative petition “contains only one proposed law or constitutional amendment.” Ohio Rev. Code § 3505.062(A). If the Ballot Board concludes that the petition contains only one proposed law-or amendment, it must certify its approval to the Attorney General, who then must file a verified copy of the proposed law or amendment with the Secretary of State. Id. However, if the Ballot Board concludes that the petition contains more than one proposed law or amendment, the Board “shall divide the initiative petition into individual petitions containing only one proposed law or constitutional amendment so as to enable voters to vote on each proposal separately and certify its approval to the attorney general.” Id. ■

(Op. & Order Den. Mot. TRO at 2-3, Doc. 11).

Plaintiffs propose the following constitutional amendment:

Article IV, Section 6.
(D) No person shall be elected or appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court if said person, at the time of said election or appointment, has served nine or more consecutive years as a judge of the Supreme Court regardless .of whether as chief justice, a justice, or a combination of the two.
Article II, Section 43.
All laws that apply to the people of the State of Ohio and its political subdivir sions shall apply equally to the members and employees of the General Assembly.

(Am. Compl, at ¶ 64),

On October 26, 2016,- the Committee submitted its initiative petition to the Office of the Ohio Attorney General. (Id. at ¶ 66). The petition contained the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment, a summary of the proposed constitutional amendment, and the preliminary initiative petition purporting to contain 1,573 signatures in support of the proposed amendment. (Id.). The same day the Committee submitted its petition, Plaintiffs filed this [854]*854lawsuit and moved for a Temporary Restraining Order asking the Court to enjoin the Ohio Ballot Board from enforcing the separate-petitions rule. (Mot. TRO, Doc. 2). The Court denied Plaintiffs’ Motion. (Op. & Order Den. Mot. TRO).

On November 7,2016, the Ohio Attorney General approved Plaintiffs’ submitted summary of the proposed constitutional amendment as “a fair and truthful statement of the' proposed ... constitutional amendment,” Ohio Rev. Code § 3519.01(A), and certified that it com tained sufficient signatures of registered electors, (Am. Compl. at ¶¶ 67, 69). The Ohio Attorney General then submitted the proposed constitutional amendment to the Ohio Ballot Board for its review process. (Am. Compl. at ¶ 69).

The .Ohio Ballot Board announced on November 10, 2016 that it would meet to discuss Plaintiffs’ petition on November 14, 2016. (Id. at ¶ 71). The Ohio Ballot Board met on November 14 to review and assess the content of the proposed constitutional amendment and “determined that the proposed initiative petition contains more than one proposed constitutional amendment and ... [, therefore,] divided the initiative petition into two individual petitions, each containing only one proposed constitutional amendment.” (Am. Compl. at ¶ 74) (quoting E,x. G, Doc. 14-7) (alterations in Am. Compl.).

That’s what Plaintiffs alleged happened; here’s how they claim Defendants.violated the law.

Pláintiffs’ first claim ■ is that the Ohio Ballot Board’s review and division of Plaintiffs’ proposed constitutional amendment is a content-based regulation of their core political speech, which cannot pass strict scrutiny. By dividing Plaintiffs’ petition ip two, the Ohio Ballot Board’s action impairs Plaintiffs’ speech, they allege, by-requiring Plaintiffs to garner twice the number of signatures for their now-separate initiative petitions.

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Bluebook (online)
275 F. Supp. 3d 849, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/committee-to-impose-term-limits-on-the-ohio-supreme-court-to-preclude-ohsd-2017.