COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justices Sharon Kennedy and Patrick DeWine each warned a gathering of about 100 conservative attorneys Friday morning that “judicial activism” will hurt the state’s high court, a jab at their Democratic opponents in the November election.
Kennedy, who is running for chief justice and has recently written scathing dissents in the Ohio redistricting cases that have accused the majority of commandeering the mapmaking process, said judicial restraint is key to preserving freedom and liberty. Although many candidates promise to leave policymaking to the legislature, they do the opposite while on the bench, she said.
“For those who seek to normalize judicial activism, they’d like to say that it is right in the balance of powers of government and the judiciary to advance society by extending standards or rules of interpretation to achieve economic, social or individual objectives,” she said. “But it misses the point. Judicial activism always presents a real danger to the Constitution in our democracy.”
Kennedy, DeWine and the other four candidates for Ohio Supreme Court seats spoke to a conference of Ohio chapters of the Federalist Society. The conservative group advocates for judicial philosophies that sometimes require using dictionaries and history and grammar books as they interpret the meaning of a legal text as originally written. The Federalist Society had a hand in influencing former President Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court picks.
Six of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices are or were members of the society, Kennedy noted.
The court needs to create a stable and predictable legal system, or else people don’t invest in businesses in the state and parents don’t choose to raise their children here, said Justice Patrick DeWine, son of Gov. Mike DeWine, who is running for re-election.
“A big part of that is they don’t know what the legal rules are; the legal rules are subject to change. Property rights aren’t protected,” he said.
The third Republican Supreme Court candidate, Justice Patrick Fischer, touched on the importance of judicial independence. He also tried to inspire mid-career and longtime attorneys in attendance to give back to the legal profession through mentorship and other services.
The Federalist Society isn’t likely the Democratic candidates’ voter base, but all Democratic Supreme Court candidates attended and used it as an opportunity to introduce themselves and get exposure.
“While those among us may focus on ideological differences, label conservative or liberal or somewhere in between, I believe we all can agree that the higher aground we can reach together is through the rule of law,” said Justice Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat who is facing Kennedy for the chief justice position.
The position will be vacant because Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor is leaving the bench due to age restrictions in the judiciary.
Brunner spoke at the event despite many conservatives, including Ohio Republican Party leadership, calling on her to recuse herself from the redistricting cases, since Eric Holder headlined a fundraiser for her in the last election cycle that raised money for her to get elected to the Supreme Court. Holder is now over a group that is funding some of the legal challenges to Ohio’s maps. Brunner hasn’t recused herself.
Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals Judge Teri Jamison, a Democrat challenging Fischer, said she’d describe her judicial philosophy as similar to U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts’ in that she believes courts must call balls and strikes but not get involved in the game.
“But there are times when the law is prejudicial” and should change, she said.
As a Black woman, Jamison began school in segregated West Virginia schools until the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision required schools to be integrated.
“I believe in the Constitution. I believe in the rule of law,” she said. “But because of acts of the court, the Supreme Court of the United States, I’m able to stand here today as an equal person and not three-fifths of a person.”
Ohio First District Court of Appeals Judge Marilyn Zayas, who is challenging DeWine and is the first person of Latino heritage to be elected to an appeals court in Ohio, talked about her mid-career transition from a stable job at Procter and Gamble to entering the University of Cincinnati law school as a mother with three kids under age 4.
But the law attracted her.
“I did it because the law is a great equalizer,” she said. “It’s intended to be applied equally and blindly.”
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