Ohio
Ohioans know what they voted for last November. Yost's legal fights don't change that. • Ohio Capital Journal
It was plain what Ohio voters approved last November with Issue 1. An overwhelming majority of Ohioans voted for a reset on abortion rights after relentless government assault on reproductive freedoms under the state’s patriarchal theocratic rule.
The consensus of 57% of the electorate was to enshrine the fundamental right to abortion in the Ohio Constitution.
Issue 1 also explicitly barred the state from directly or indirectly burdening, prohibiting, penalizing or interfering with access to abortion, and discriminating against abortion patients and providers.
It’s right there in the ballot language of the constitutional amendment voters said “yes” to last November. But now, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who issued a legal analysis that largely stood against Issue 1 before it was approved by voters, argues Ohioans didn’t vote for what they did.
For months Yost has been doing his level best to legally obstruct implementation of the newly amended state constitution by maintaining the legitimacy of burdensome and discriminatory pre-Issue 1 abortion restrictions that clearly violate the letter of the law post-Issue 1.
He slow walks every single constitutional challenge to every single Republican statute still on the books that interferes with abortion access by erecting unnecessary government barriers between a woman and her right to an abortion.
Yost had the gall to contend that Ohio voters didn’t pass Issue 1 to block unnecessary government-mandated delays before patients are allowed to obtain abortions, or to eliminate government-mandated information (that is at least irrelevant and at worst distressing) prior to receiving care.
Yes. They. Did.
Yost cannot pick and choose, a la carte, which provision of the voter-mandated abortion rights amendment applies to unconstitutional restrictions that remain in the Ohio Revised Code.
But that’s what he’s trying to do in courtroom arguments to keep burdensome and discriminatory state abortion restrictions in force indefinitely, including the 24-hour waiting period for abortion patients – a medically unwarranted government mandate not applicable to any other medical procedure – plus separate, in-person visits for patients to be schooled in required anti-choice material designed to discourage abortions.
Yost and his fellow Republican theocrats like to intimate that childlike Ohioans who voted for Issue 1 didn’t fully understand what they were doing. The naïve majority who cast their ballots in favor of the amendment simply failed to grasp what it meant to the common sense abortion regulations Republican men had imposed on Ohio women.
Court filings by Yost’s office suggest gullible citizens thought a vote for Issue 1 would just give women the same abortion rights they had under Roe v. Wade. Never mind what the language added to the Ohio Constitution (and read by Issue 1 voters) actually said.
Yost analyzed that text at length last year before the November election in a disingenuous critique ripped by a former Ohio AG and AG candidate as “a biased hit piece that is intended to confuse voters and weaken support for the amendment.”
Yost concluded that all state abortion laws, such as the 24-hour waiting period and state mandated “informed consent” provisions, would likely be erased if the amendment passed. They “would certainly be challenged under Issue 1” and subject to the “exclusive scrutiny test” of the court as to whether or not they “burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against” the right to abortion, reasoned Yost.
The problem is, countered his peers, “no such standard of review exists in law – Yost has created it out of whole cloth to support his arguments.”
Yost was, wrote Marc Dann and Jeff Crossman, “deliberately misleading” with “hyperbolic claims and scare tactics.”
He was also revealing his fealty to partisan extremism over the public interest of truth-telling.
Today, Yost crafts his own textual interpretation of the changes Ohioans mandated in state abortion law and audaciously assumes what voters were thinking when they enshrined the right “to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions” in their constitution. It is obvious he does not respect the will of the people or acknowledge their sovereignty in self-governance.
Yost, ever the media hound, wants to attract attention as a courtroom combatant for the hard right. To that end, he will fight constitutionally protected abortion rights in Ohio with protracted litigation and frivolous appeals to subvert implementation of the law with whatever legal tool he has to keep Ohio women subjugated as second-class citizens.
Yost is fixated on is generating headlines and getting on TV. So he pursues partisan lawsuits with other Republican AGs to exploit MAGA wedge issues, especially concerning transgender equality, and files a slew of Trump-loving, regulatory-hating amicus briefs to the Supreme Court.
Ohio’s chief law enforcement officer waves off Trump’s 88 felony counts in four jurisdictions for charges ranging from “pervasive and destabilizing lies” about election fraud to illegally hoarding classified documents and falsifying business records in a hush money coverup to win the 2016 election. Yost appears guided by selective application of the law when it comes to the accused felon and presumptive presidential nominee of his party.
But Ohio’s AG is misguided if he thinks Ohioans are willing to concede that same selectivity when it comes to their hard-won constitutional right to reproductive freedom. They know what they voted for and so does Yost.
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Ohio
Seventeen Ohio students at the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Skilled spellers from across the country are gathered this week just outside the nation’s capital for the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
What You Need To Know
- Of the 245 spellers at the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee, 17 are from Ohio
- The words at the bee are unique, much like the spellers themselves
- Several Ohio spellers are advancing to the quarterfinals round on Wednesday
The spellers this year, including 17 from Ohio, have a daunting task: to memorize the spelling of 4,000 words for a chance at a $50,000 prize and the title of national spelling bee champion.
The words at the bee, like “leberwurst,” “rennet” and “creaces,” are uncommon, much like the spellers themselves.
Even among the 245 spellers, Ryan Frazee of Wheelersburg, Ohio is unique. At age 15, he is the oldest contestant this year. However, he said he was just happy to meet other kids from around the country who also like spelling.
“I just like learning the words, vocabulary,” Ryan said. “I’m the mindset of all these other people. I kind of feel integrated with everybody else.”
The Wheelersburg Middle School eighth grader has only been a competitive speller for three years, mostly training on his own by reading the dictionary.
“He is constantly reading. That’s really what’s gotten him here, is his love for reading and his love for vocabulary. And he knows words that, you know, I’ve never even heard of,” said Ryan’s mom, Melissa Frazee.
Frazee said his favorite word was “boogie-woogie” because it includes repetition, rhyme and hyphenation.
Unfortunately, Ryan misspelled the word “obeisance,” meaning deferential respect, by one letter Tuesday in the preliminary round, knocking him out of the spelling bee.
His parents, though, said just making it to the national spelling bee was a win in itself.
“He’s very witty, very clever,” said Ryan’s dad, Sean Frazee. “We’re very proud of him.”
Several Ohio spellers are advancing to the quarterfinals round on Wednesday. The champion will be determined on Thursday night.
The last Ohio champion was Anamika Veeramani, who won with the word “stromuhr” in 2010.
Ohio
TIMES / LIVE SCORING: 2024 Ohio Senior Open
STARTING TIMES >
WHAT: 39th Ohio Senior Open Championship
WHEN: May 29-30, 2024
WHERE: Fazio Course, Firestone Country Club. Par for both divisions is 35-35—70. The course will play to 6,500 yards for the Senior Division and 6,095 yards for the Senior Plus. Formerly known as the West Course, the Fazio Course was built in 1989 and redesigned by legendary architect Tom Fazio in 2021.
WHO: The event is conducted by the Northern Ohio Section of the Professional Golfers Association.
FORMAT: The event is contested in two divisions: The Senior Division is for players 50-and-over as of May 29, 2024; Senior Plus is for players 60-and-over.
THE FIELD: Limited to 144 players. There are 63 professionals and 81 amateurs entered. Approximately 80 cities, towns or villages from 34 counties – as well as two former Senior Open champions no longer living in Ohio – have entered.
SPONSORS: Michelob Ultra, Forever Lawn, Invited.
FREE ADMISSION: The event is open to the public with no admission charge.
SCHEDULE: May 29: 7 a.m. Driving range opens; 8 a.m. First round begins off both #1 and #10 tees. May 30: 7 a.m. Driving range opens; 8 a.m.: Second round begins of both #1 and #10 tees.
Ohio
Northeast Ohio Weather: Cool and unsettled through tomorrow
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A much cooler air mass rolled in yesterday. We have series of disturbances that will keep us unsettled today and tomorrow. Expect rounds of showers and thunderstorms through the day with the risk of rain going up this afternoon. High temperatures only in the 65 to 70 degree range. More rounds of showers and storms tonight and tomorrow. The higher risk of rain tomorrow looks to be the first half of the day. Afternoon temperatures will be in the 60s tomorrow. High pressure begins to track in Wednesday night. This will clear out the rain and clouds. Expect a good deal of sun Thursday.
Copyright 2024 WOIO. All rights reserved.
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