The Buckeye Institute commented on the newly released jobs report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “Ohio experienced another strong jobs report in December—with the unemployment rate falling to 4.5 percent and the labor market participation rate increasing to 61.5 percent—to end 2021 on a strong note…As Ohio enters its third year of dealing with the pandemic, it is clear policymakers need to do more to spur economic growth and adopt policies that will attract employers to the state.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its appeal brief in Kolkowski v. Ashtabula Area Teachers Association with Ohio’s Eleventh District Court of Appeals, urging the court to recognize that a union—which Barbara Kolkowski is not a member of—cannot force her to accept union legal representation to arbitrate her workplace grievance. “The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Ohio case law, and Ohio’s collective bargaining statute are clear: employees have the right to choose their own counsel in a workplace arbitration.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its appeal in Buckeye v. Kilgore with the Ohio Supreme Court asking the court to hear the case and recognize Ohio’s emergency-based local income tax system—where the state forced people to work from home, but nonetheless deemed their work to have been performed in a higher-taxed office location—as unconstitutional. “The Buckeye Institute is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reaffirm that established and commonsense limits on municipal taxation, and the Due Process Clause, apply—even during a pandemic.” 
 

The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in McDonald v. Firth, urging the court to hear the case and end laws that force lawyers to join state-sponsored bar associations that engage in lobbying on inherently political and ideological issues to practice their profession. “Forcing attorneys to pay dues—that subsidize political and ideological speech—to the State Bar of Texas violates the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association.” 

The Buckeye Institute celebrated a victory in its case—Phillips v. OSHA—challenging the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate. The Supreme Court of the United States issued an emergency stay halting the enforcement of the unlawful Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) mandate. “While this case is far from over, today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling gives business owners and workers some measure of certainty that they will not be forced to implement a costly vaccine mandate that violates numerous constitutional principles and laws.”

The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief with the Ohio Supreme Court in Bowling v. DeWine urging to the court to affirm that Governor Mike DeWine has the authority to withdraw Ohio from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program, something The Buckeye Institute recommended as part of its Policy Solutions for the Pandemic series. “The employment data show what everyone knows instinctively—government incentives matter. Governor DeWine was well within his authority under Ohio law to opt-out of the extended pandemic benefits which were slowing Ohio’s economic recovery.”
 

Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and a lead attorney representing Phillips Manufacturing & Tower Company and Sixarp LLC against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) vaccine mandate, issued a statement after the U.S. Supreme Court’s oral arguments in the vaccine mandate case, saying in part, “If OSHA’s unlawful vaccine mandate is allowed to take effect on Monday, it will catalyze predictably devastating consequences on the supply chain and impose irreparable economic harm upon companies including our clients.”

For another year, Ohio ranked an unimpressive 35^th out of all 50 states in the Economic Freedom of North America 2021 report, released by the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute in partnership with Canada’s Fraser Institute. The report ranks every state and province in North America based on economic freedom. “In the 2021 Economic Freedom of North America report, Ohio maintained a lackluster rating of 35^th in the nation, its best score in the index’s history, but below average nevertheless.”

Greg R. Lawson, The Buckeye Institute; Eric “Yitz” Frank, School Choice Ohio; and Chad L. Aldis, Thomas B. Fordham Institute issued a statement on the lawsuit challenging Ohio’s school choice programs, saying in part, “The question on whether Ohio’s school choice programs are constitutional has already been asked and answered. Rather than waste taxpayers’ money, backers of this latest attempt to deny Ohio parents any choice in education would serve students better by actually working with families to ensure Ohio’s students are prepared for college, career, and real life.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its reply brief in the Supreme Court of the United States outlining why an emergency stay is urgently needed in Buckeye’s OSHA vaccine mandate case—Phillips v. OSHA. “If the court does not act immediately to halt the vaccine mandate’s implementation, these companies will be compelled to comply with this unlawful requirement and forced to implement expensive policies and practices that will threaten their businesses, expose them to penalties for noncompliance, and cost them qualified, well-trained, good employees at a time when they are already suffering a labor shortage.”