A group of Ohioans wants to try yet again to change the state’s Constitution to permit lawsuits against government employees.
The amendment, aiming for the November 2024 presidential election, looks to add a Section 22 to Article I of the Ohio Constitution in order to end qualified immunity being used to protect state employees, including but not limited to law enforcement officers, against civil lawsuits.
This marks the fourth time that The Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity has submitted the proposal for review by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office rejected the original version of the petition, “Civil Action for Deprivation of Constitutional Rights,” submitted on May 3rd, 2021, and again on August 23rd, 2021 claiming that the language was misleading. The petitioners modified and resubmitted the petition as the “The Ohio Civil Liberties Restoration Act” on November 22nd, 2022 which Yost rejected for material omissions. The petitioners also submitted the petition as “Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights” on February 27th, 2023 which the Attorney General again rejected as containing language omissions and misstatements. Yost received the petition again on May 24th, 2023, and rejected it for vague, confusing, and contradictory language.
The Legal Defense Fund says that the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity shields state and municipal politicians, members of law enforcement, educators, and other public servants from civil liability lawsuits unless they infringed on a clearly recognized constitutional right.
According to Executive Director of The Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity Kyle Pierce (pictured above, left), it’s important to hold government officials accountable for their actions.
“Ending qualified immunity would help ensure that victims of misconduct have the ability to seek justice and would promote transparency and accountability within law enforcement,” Pierce said.
In 2021, House Democrats introduced House Bill (HB) 332, a package of bills addressing police reform that included legislation to eliminate qualified immunity. The legislation stalled in the House.
This fourth submission follows Ohio voters defeating State Issue One to raise the threshold needed to amend the state constitution in order to protect it from special interest groups during the August 8th special election.
According to Ohio Secretary of State and candidate for U.S. Senate Frank LaRose (pictured here), the assault on the state constitution is just beginning with the defeat of State Issue 1.
“As I’ve predicted for months now, the assault on our state constitution is just beginning. We haven’t even certified the result of Tuesday’s election, and the radical left has already filed paperwork to strip critical legal protections from law enforcement. This amendment threatens to unleash a flood of frivolous, politically motivated lawsuits against the brave men and women trying to protect our communities. Good luck trying to hire new officers if this amendment gets adopted. If only we had a requirement that would ensure a broad, bipartisan consensus of Ohioans before something like this gets jammed into our state constitution. We’ve got a radical abortion amendment coming in November, job-killing wage mandates on small businesses aimed at next year’s ballot, and now an anti-police amendment that’s just been filed. The attempt to turn Ohio into California is officially underway,” LaRose said.
Ohio GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou also spoke out against the proposal.
“And so it begins. “Qualified immunity” may not be a household term in Ohio. So let me put it in more basic terms. Now, they want to allow more lawsuits against individual cops (not just their agency). And they want to put this in the state constitution,” Triantafilou said.
According to Yost, his role in the petition process is to “determine whether the summary is a fair and truthful representation of the proposed statute.”
Attorney General Yost has until August 18th to review and decide on the fourth revision of the petition.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Ohio Coalition To End Qualified Immunity” by OCEQI
(Executive Director Kyle Pierce (left), Committee Chair Cynthia Brown (center), and Committee Member Pastor Marcella Bailey (right))
