The Removal of Judges in Ohio
Thursday, March 16th, 2006 By David OwsianyFranklin County Common Pleas Judge John Connor’s lenient sentence of a man, who pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery allegedly involving young boys, has received a great deal of media attention recently. In the Columbus Dispatch story, Governor Bob Taft, Attorney General Jim Petro and House Speaker Jon Husted all suggest that if Connor refuses to step down, the legislature should consider removing him.
Connor has indicated in recent interviews that he has done nothing that merits his removal and suggests the legislature would be overstepping its bounds by removing him. As David Mayer and I have argued in a previous Buckeye Institute Brief regarding the Ohio Supreme Court’s usurpation of legislative authority, it is entirely consistent with the Ohio Constitution for the legislature to remove judges who abuse their power.
The Ohio Constitution provides at least three avenues for removal of judges by the General Assembly. Under the Ohio Constitution “the governor, judges, and all state officers, may be impeached for any misdemeanor in office.” The Ohio House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment and the Senate has the authority to hold the trial of impeachment. Conviction requires concurrence of at least 2/3 of the members of the Senate. This procedure is similar to the impeachment procedure contained in the U.S. Constitution for federal officials.
In a separate provision, the Ohio Constitution provides that laws shall be passed for prompt removal of state officers, judges and legislators for “misconduct involving moral turpitude or for other cause provided by law.”
There is also a special section in the Ohio Constitution specifically for the removal of judges by the legislature, which provides “judges may be removed from office, by concurrent resolution of both houses of the General Assembly, if two thirds of the members elected to each house concur therein.” The only requirement upon the General Assembly is to give the offending judge notice and an opportunity to be heard. This procedure seems to best fit the situation involving Judge Connor. It does not require any specific grounds for removal other than that the resolution must have the support of 2/3 of the members of each chamber of the General Assembly.
While the general impeachment clause for all officials has existed since the adoption of 1802 Ohio Constitution, the removal provision specifically for judges was added to the Ohio Constitution in 1851. The 108th General Assembly (1969-70) created the Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission to study the Ohio Constitution and recommend amendments. In 1977, the Commission recommended repeal of the section providing for removal of judges arguing that “one can infer from (the removal provision) that the legislature may have the power to remove a judge arbitrarily.” Nevertheless, the removal provision was never repealed from the Ohio Constitution and may be invoked by the General Assembly today.
