LOVELAND MAGAZINE

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Tag: American Civil Liberties Union

  • Lawsuit accuses Ohio Redistricting Commission of violating constitution

    Lawsuit accuses Ohio Redistricting Commission of violating constitution

    Members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission are sworn in at the Ohio Statehouse. From left, Senate President Matt Huffman, state Auditor Keith Faber, House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, House Speaker Bob Cupp and Sen. Vernon Sykes. Photo by Susan Tebben

    BY: and Ohio Capital Journal

    The ACLU has filed an expected lawsuit disputing the partisan legislative redistricting maps passed earlier this month by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

    The Ohio and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, along with law firm Covington & Burling, LLP, announced the lawsuit Thursday afternoon, accusing the Republican majority of “disrespecting the letter and spirit of the constitutional reforms passed overwhelmingly by Ohio voters in 2015.”

    The ACLU and Covington & Burling are presenting the lawsuit on behalf of the Ohio Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, unnamed individual plaintiffs and the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

    The parties in the court challenge contend that the maps violate the constitution by not accounting for the “partisan balance of House and Senate districts correspond closely to the statewide preferences of the voters of Ohio.”

    “This is an illegal map, plain and simple,” said Robert Fram, of Covington & Burling, in a statement.

    The lawsuit accuses the commission of a “brazen manipulation of district lines for extreme partisan advantage” that “doubly dishonors the honors of this state.”

    “After decades of working to end partisan gerrymandering in the Buckeye State, the League of Women Voters of Ohio asks the Ohio Supreme Court to defend the rights of everyday Ohioans to have legislative districts that serve and represent them rather (than) be rigged to favor the short-sighted and selfish interests of political parties and candidates,” said Jen Miller, president of the League of Women Voters said in a statement.

    A spokesperson for Senate President Matt Huffman, who presented the maps that were eventually approved by the redistricting commission on Sept. 16, said Senate Republicans “are confident the maps approved by the Redistricting Commission are constitutional and compliant.”

    Redistricting Commission co-chair state Sen. Vernon Sykes, one of the two Democrats to vote against the map said he, too, believes the maps are not constitutional.

    “Unfortunately, the maps adopted last week by the Republican members of the Redistricting Commission do not comply with those requirements,” he said in a statement. “They favor one political party and do not meet the litmus test of fairness and proportionality described by the Constitution.”

    A spokesperson for fellow co-chair and House Speaker Bob Cupp also defended the maps.

    “Lawsuits happen every time there is a new map,” said Aaron Mulvey deputy press secretary for the House GOP. “We knew this was coming, and the state will defend the constitutional maps approved by the Redistricting Commission.”

    If the Ohio Supreme Court finds the maps to be unconstitutional, they would return to the commission for a second time.

    The lawsuit comes as congressional redistricting is set to begin this month. If the state legislature can’t come to an agreement by Sept. 30, those maps will also go to the commission for consideration.

    Republican majority gerrymanders Ohio for another four years

    Loveland Magazine – 

    SUSAN TEBBEN is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.
  • Poll: Big majority in Ohio support getting rid of the death penalty

    Poll: Big majority in Ohio support getting rid of the death penalty

    By Marty Schladen and Ohio Capital Journal

    Almost 60% of Ohioans support replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to a poll conducted late last year and released on Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the advocacy group Ohioans to Stop Executions.

    In addition, a majority supports a full repeal, including 69% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans, according to the online poll of 600 registered voters conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 by the Tarrance Group, a firm with a B/C rating from FiveThirtyEight.com.

    The numbers represent a big swing in Ohio attitudes toward the death penalty. A Quinnipiac University poll indicated that in 2014, 68% of Ohioans supported the punishment.

    Ohio has had a rough go with executions since then.

    The same year, Dennis McGuire gasped, choked and struggled on his gurney for about 10 minutes before succumbing at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The incident resulted in a years-long moratorium, but after executions were restarted, a federal judge ruled that the state’s execution method was tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment.

    That prompted incoming Gov. Mike Dewine to delay executions in January 2019.

    Then press accounts alerted drug makers that their products had ended up in the death chamber despite written warnings against the practice. Threats to stop supplying the state with drugs for any purpose prompted DeWine to delay all subsequent executions and say that lethal injection no longer appears to be viable in Ohio.

    The poll released Thursday might indicate that he won’t pay much of a political price for his actions.

    Jocelyn Rosnick

    “This poll in Ohio confirms what we’ve been hearing across the state — which is that voters oppose the death penalty,” Jocelyn Rosnick, Policy Director for the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement. “Whether it’s due to racial disparity, fiscal or innocence concerns, people all across the state and across the aisle believe that it’s time for Ohio to cut ties with the death penalty. Ohio won’t be the first state to pass a full repeal, and we shouldn’t be the last.” 

    The death penalty everywhere in the United States has long been criticized for being disproportionately applied to people of color. The statement accompanying the poll noted that while people of color make up just 15% of Ohio’s population, they make up 56% of inmates on death row.

    That disparity might be reflected in the poll results.

    While 58% of white people surveyed said they supported replacing the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole, those rates rose to 64% for Blacks and 68% for Hispanics.

    The survey’s results and other recent events point to an obvious conclusion, said Hannah Kubbins, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions.

    “The momentum to repeal the death penalty is at an all-time high,” she said in a statement. “Just last month, Ohio lawmakers passed a bill that exempts individuals with a serious mental illness from receiving a death sentence. This development has sparked more conversations about how Ohio can build a more equitable criminal legal system. Furthermore, we know the death penalty is not an effective response to violence, and that it won’t prevent future violence or heal past violence.”