In a new policy report, The Buckeye Institute exposes how public nuisance legal theory is being used to attack energy companies and set U.S. energy policy through the courts. “The rash of public nuisance climate lawsuits spreading across the nation is a dangerous attempt to use the courts to force communities to adopt net-zero carbon-emissions policies. This effort to impose an ESG agenda through the courts, after failing to do so through Congress, would financially cripple energy companies and threaten the U.S. economy.”

Columbus, OH – David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute, issued a statement reacting to the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling on a procedural question in Doe v. Columbus. The court left in place the preliminary injunction prohibiting the city of Columbus from enforcing its unconstitutional ban on certain firearm magazines, while allowing the city to immediately appeal the trial court’s preliminary injunction.
 

“After several years of headline-grabbing decisions that reshaped national political debate—from abortion and affirmative action to religious liberty and presidential power—in its October 2024 Term, the United States Supreme Court largely stepped back from the culture war flashpoints and focused on institutional structure, procedural discipline, and interpretive clarity.” In Structure Over Spectacle, The Buckeye Institute’s David C. Tryon and the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies’ Donald A. Daugherty look back on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 term.

In The Columbus Dispatch, The Buckeye Institute states that, under the U.S. Constitution, Congress does not have the authority to ban home distilling for personal use. In Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury, The Buckeye Institute is suing the federal government to end its unconstitutional ban.

The Buckeye Institute filed two sets of public comments—one from Buckeye’s policy experts, the other from Buckeye’s legal experts—outlining the technical and legal reasons the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should rescind its 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding and motor-vehicle greenhouse gas standards, which have driven up the price of cars and trucks for American consumers.

The Buckeye Institute marks Constitution Day with a piece in The Columbus Dispatch, writing, “When Benjamin Franklin was asked what form of government the American framers had created, he wryly replied, ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’ This Constitution Day, on the brink of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is fitting to wonder whether we have, in fact, kept what the Founders gave us — and how.”

In the Columbus Bar Association’s Lawyers Quarterly magazine, David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute, evaluates the impact of the end of Chevron Deference. “Advocates and adversaries of Loper Bright overstate the likely effect of Chevron’s recent demise. It will not end the administrative state, but it will significantly affect how Congress, federal agencies, and judges fulfill their constitutional obligations.”

The Buckeye Institute issued a statement after the City of Columbus filed its brief in Doe v. Columbus with the Ohio Supreme Court, saying, “In its third attempt at lifting a preliminary injunction prohibiting Columbus from enforcing its unconstitutional gun law, the city is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to allow the city to appeal the preliminary injunction, which, according to Ohio law, is not appealable.” 

In February 2023, The Buckeye Institute sued the City of Columbus, Ohio, to stop its illegal and unconstitutional 30-round magazine ban. In Doe v. Columbus, Buckeye represents six Columbus residents who legally owned, and still own, 30-round magazines until the city banned them. This case is still in its early stages, but Buckeye has already won significant victories defending the Ohio and U.S. constitutions and protecting the rights of gun owners. 

Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue rulings in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. U.S. Department of Commerce, which could rein in the power of unelected government officials to make laws well beyond what Congress authorized. In the new issue of the Columbus Bar Association’s Lawyers Quarterly, The Buckeye Institute’s David C. Tryon looks at the end of Chevron deference and what comes next.