Amid U.S. Supreme Court controversy, state judicial elections could give voters a voice • Ohio Capital Journal

Expecting a slew of backward-looking, precedent-ignoring, and legally absurd ideological rulings from the domineering extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court is disturbing, to say the least.

The fear of what is to come is compounded by the ethical scandals and conflicts of interest that surround some of the more dogmatic decision-makers in the judiciary.

In 2024, the highest court in the land is not a respected bastion of judicial integrity. How can it be, when there are revelations that judges are wineed and dined and flown to exotic locations in private jets by billionaire patrons who do business with the court? How can it be, when judges refuse to disqualify themselves in high-stakes cases, even though the competing interests they bring to the proceedings mean that their impartiality could legitimately be questioned?

We’re stuck with a broken court of right-wing extremists on a MAGA mission. We can’t vote them out of lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. The president holds all the cards in this regard.

It was the convicted felon who ran for his old White House post and built the current hard-line majority on the court that ended half a century of abortion rights, rolled back a whole host of other freedoms, and deregulated public health and safety protections as much as possible.

The court has stalled Donald Trump’s desperate bid to win immunity to avoid prosecution for losing the 2020 election. Two justices about to rule on that farce and another Jan. 6 case are also likely to be far from it. The flags the rioting insurrectionists waved on Jan. 6 were similar to those flying outside Justice Samuel Alito’s homes.

Justice Clarence Thomas is married to a MAGA fanatic who was involved in the attempted coup that culminated on January 6. All we can do is watch as public trust in the institution sinks to zero and wait for the flood of major rulings to plunge us into despair. Our fate is sealed. For generations.

Our ability to fix the terrible abuses of the Supreme Court is limited to who we put in the Oval Office and elect to the U.S. Senate. But in Ohio, voters can fix the abuses of their state’s Supreme Court and change things that aren’t working for them. They can retire justices who act unethically, who don’t recuse themselves in cases with obvious conflicts of interest, or who reliably rule as partisans rather than impartial jurists.

Ohioans hold all the cards when it comes to who sits on the state Supreme Court and impacts their lives. Beyond judicial temperament and stellar track record, there is the question of a nominee’s fidelity to the law, regardless of party. Will the state’s constitutional right to abortion be upheld, as approved by an overwhelming majority of voters, or curtailed by a gag vote of the court?

Will Ohio’s gerrymandering, which manipulates legislative and congressional districts to give one party an unfair advantage, be abolished as a lawless mockery of the state constitution or perpetuated by a party that holds a majority on the court?

Unfortunately, political affiliation has taken on an outsized role in Ohio’s judicial elections thanks to a 2021 Republican-backed law. The law politicized judicial elections as a means to pursue partisan goals (more Republican judges). Certain judicial candidates, including justices of the state Supreme Court, must now run under partisan labels.

Voters typically know little about, and care less about, the judicial races at the bottom of the ballot. Party affiliations attached to judicial candidates make voting easier for the uninformed, who tend to vote down a party ticket in an increasingly reddening Republican state. The partisan attributions, first applied to Supreme Court justices in the 2022 general election, worked like a charm. Republicans won all three races for Supreme Court justices, securing a 4-3 majority on the bench.

Now it’s up to Ohio voters. Get informed about Ohio’s all-important Supreme Court elections by November 5. begin Here And Here And Here. Be an engaged voter. Not a lazy one.

Who has the final say on the state’s laws in Ohio cannot be left to chance or to partisan labels designed to obscure unqualified, unprincipled actors. Otherwise, we must prepare for an Ohio Supreme Court that resembles the Supreme Court.