The Ohio Supreme Court docket’s “O’Connor years” are about to finish, as judicial age limits pressure Summit County Republican Maureen O’Connor, 71, to retire. Her 11 years as chief justice have been a mannequin of fine stewardship, together with unremitting efforts to make Ohio’s judiciary extra responsive, extra equitable, extra revered and higher understood by voters.

That the O’Connor years adopted shortly after greater than 20 years of management by the late Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, one other Republican, have added to the advantages. The soundness allowed Moyer after which O’Connor — the primary lady to function chief justice — to push efficiently for reforms and extra oversight of a state judiciary that wanted to alter, and that’s altering.

But, there’s extra to do. The Ohio judiciary must develop into extra various and extra targeted on equitable therapy of deprived defendants and litigants whether it is to satisfy its constitutionally important function.

That lends particular significance to the Nov. 8 battle to develop into the subsequent chief justice wherein two present justices search to succeed O’Connor — Sharon L. Kennedy, a Hamilton Republican, and Jennifer Brunner, a Columbus Democrat.

The seven-justice Ohio Supreme Court docket doesn’t simply hear appeals. It additionally regulates admission to the authorized occupation, disciplines attorneys, and – by means of the chief justice – has “normal superintendence” of all different Ohio courts, giving the chief justice monumental accountability for, and massive energy over, Ohio’s court docket community.

Kennedy, 60, a former Hamilton police officer, was a choose of Butler County Frequent Pleas Court docket’s Home Relations Division earlier than first being elected to the Supreme Court docket in 2012. Her present time period as a justice ends in 2026.

Brunner, 65, was a choose of the tenth Ohio District Court docket of Appeals earlier than she was elected to the Supreme Court docket in 2020. Earlier, Brunner was Ohio’s secretary of state (2007 by means of 2010) and earlier than that, a choose of Franklin County Frequent Pleas Court docket’s Common Division.

Kennedy, like this yr’s different two GOP candidates for the Supreme Court docket, Justices Pat DeWine and Pat Fischer, declined to participate in The Plain Vendor/cleveland.com endorsement interviews this yr. The trio mentioned in a joint letter, partially, that “there’s merely no approach we will anticipate a good and goal course of” due to “the variety of opinion items from members of your editorial board which have been unfairly important of our tenure on the Supreme Court docket and which have gone as far as to falsely accuse us of appearing unethically.”

Sure, our editorial board has criticized what we see as undue partisanship within the three GOP justices’ repeated votes favoring Republican-drawn redistricting maps, and we have now castigated DeWine for his clearly unsuitable choice to not recuse in redistricting instances involving his father, Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine. However it might have been useful to listen to the three justices’ views.

In each 2014, after we endorsed Kennedy for re-election, and in 2020, after we didn’t, the justice appeared earlier than our editorial board to clarify positions with which we disagreed, together with, as we put it, her “push[ing] the envelope of judicial canons when she responded ‘agree’ to this assertion in a voter survey: “In Roe v. Wade … the U.S. Supreme Court docket acknowledged a ‘proper to privateness’ beneath the Structure that features abortion. The Structure doesn’t embody this proper.” Or, her talking at a Better Toledo Proper to Life luncheon when the group had a case pending earlier than the Supreme Court docket. Or, her misguided 2019 opinion invalidating Cleveland’s Fanny Lewis local-employment legislation, successfully favoring downstate contractors who needed the roles. But, Kennedy — then — took the time to return earlier than us to clarify her reasoning. That’s what an excellent public servant does.

As properly, this yr’s redistricting selections have uncovered worrying fissures within the excessive court docket itself, with pointed opinions from some among the many three-justice GOP minority suggesting a lack of cordiality and respect. We’re involved that animosity may widen and develop into extra toxic if Kennedy is elected chief justice.

Jennifer Brunner is the clear alternative for chief justice. Requested about these obvious tensions, Brunner mentioned her first intuition can be to attempt to restore cordiality just by speaking “with current members of the court docket” about their concepts for shifting ahead.

Brunner’s expertise in a spread of courts, from trial to appellate ranges, and her managerial expertise, make her the best-qualified candidate to guide Ohio’s judiciary in a collegial, constructive method. Voters ought to elect Jennifer Brunner as chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court docket on the Nov. 8 poll. Early voting begins Oct. 12.

On Sept. 21, as a part of its endorsement course of, the editorial board of The Plain Vendor and cleveland.com held an endorsement assembly for chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court docket, a place being contested between two present justices on the Ohio Supreme Court docket, Republican Sharon L. Kennedy and Democrat Jennifer Brunner. Solely Brunner appeared for the interview; Kennedy declined to take part. This would be the first yr in a century, per a latest state legislation, that celebration labels will likely be included on general-election ballots for judicial races on the appellate and Supreme Court docket ranges. Take heed to audio of this interview beneath:

About our editorials: Editorials specific the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Vendor — the senior management and editorial-writing workers. As is conventional, editorials are unsigned and meant to be seen because the voice of the information group.

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Different sources for voters:

League of Girls Voters vote411.org voters’ information.

Judge4Yourself Cuyahoga County bar affiliation coalition 2022 judicial rankings.

Judicial Votes Depend nonpartisan academic state web site on judicial candidates.