-Source-Cleveland.com
In ways big and small, our state and federal supreme courts make decisions that affect the lives of every Ohioan.
As we've been recently reminded, the U.S. Supreme Court selection process - controlled by the U.S. president and U.S. Senate - receives more negative attention than the Founding Fathers intended.
The Ohio Supreme Court selection process - governed entirely by voters - receives precious little attention. At times, the results reflect as much.
Decisions by the Ohio Supreme Court can have enormous impact. The court's 1997 ruling in the landmark DeRolph case found to be unconstitutional the way the state funded each of the state's more than 600 school districts.
More recent decisions have abrogated (often unfairly) the rights of local governments to regulate deadly weapons, predatory lending, oil and gas drilling, traffic laws, and hiring requirements.
Ohio Supreme Court rules against Cleveland's efforts at local gun control
Ohio Supreme Court rules against Cleveland's efforts at local gun control
The court on Wednesday refused to review an appellate court decision that struck down Cleveland's gun offender registry and several gun ordinances approved in 2015.
And an August ruling allowed the Ohio Department of Education to reclaim $80 million in taxpayer money wrongfully paid the now-closed Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) for allegedly padding its attendance records.
Nevertheless, as Election Day nears, private polling shows about 70 percent of the voters in the two contests for seats on the Ohio Supreme Court are undecided.
Voters tend to pay more attention to a race for township clerk than they do to the state's most important judicial body.
Last time that wasn't the case was 32 years ago, when stories by Plain Dealer reporters Mary Anne Sharkey and the late Gary Webb revealed the court, led by Chief Justice Frank Celebrezze, a Cleveland-area Democrat, was awash in patronage, favoritism, vindictive punishment of enemies and a host of other suspicious activities. Read more
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