The Ohio Supreme Court’s “O’Connor years” are about to end, as judicial age limits force Summit County Republican Maureen O’Connor, 71, to retire. Her 11 years as chief justice have been a model of good stewardship, including unremitting efforts to make Ohio’s judiciary more responsive, more equitable, more respected and better understood by voters.
That the O’Connor years followed shortly after more than two decades of leadership by the late Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, another Republican, have added to the benefits. The stability allowed Moyer and then O’Connor -- the first woman to serve as chief justice -- to push successfully for reforms and more oversight of a state judiciary that needed to change, and that is changing.
Yet, there is more to do. The Ohio judiciary needs to become more diverse and more focused on equitable treatment of disadvantaged defendants and litigants if it is to fulfill its constitutionally essential role.
That lends special importance to the Nov. 8 battle to become the next chief justice in which two current justices seek to succeed O’Connor -- Sharon L. Kennedy, a Hamilton Republican, and Jennifer Brunner, a Columbus Democrat.
The seven-justice Ohio Supreme Court doesn’t just hear appeals. It also regulates admission to the legal profession, disciplines lawyers, and – through the chief justice – has “general superintendence” of all other Ohio courts, giving the chief justice enormous responsibility for, and enormous power over, Ohio’s court network.
Kennedy, 60, a former Hamilton police officer, was a judge of Butler County Common Pleas Court’s Domestic Relations Division before first being elected to the Supreme Court in 2012. Her current term as a justice ends in 2026.
Brunner, 65, was a judge of the 10th Ohio District Court of Appeals before she was elected to the Supreme Court in 2020. Earlier, Brunner was Ohio’s secretary of state (2007 through 2010) and before that, a judge of Franklin County Common Pleas Court’s General Division.
Kennedy, like this year’s other two GOP candidates for the Supreme Court, Justices Pat DeWine and Pat Fischer, declined to take part in The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com endorsement interviews this year. The trio said in a joint letter, in part, that “there is simply no way we can expect a fair and objective process” because of “the number of opinion pieces from members of your editorial board that have been unfairly critical of our tenure on the Supreme Court and that have gone so far as to falsely accuse us of acting unethically.”
Yes, our editorial board has criticized what we see as undue partisanship in the three GOP justices’ repeated votes favoring Republican-drawn redistricting maps, and we have castigated DeWine for his clearly wrong decision not to recuse in redistricting cases involving his father, Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine. But it would have been helpful to hear the three justices’ perspectives.
In both 2014, when we endorsed Kennedy for re-election, and in 2020, when we did not, the justice appeared before our editorial board to explain positions with which we disagreed, including, as we put it, her “push[ing] the envelope of judicial canons when she responded ‘agree’ to this statement in a voter survey: “In Roe v. Wade ... the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a ‘right to privacy’ under the Constitution that includes abortion. The Constitution does not include this right.” Or, her speaking at a Greater Toledo Right to Life luncheon when the group had a case pending before the Supreme Court. Or, her misguided 2019 opinion invalidating Cleveland’s Fanny Lewis local-employment law, effectively favoring downstate contractors who wanted the jobs. Yet, Kennedy -- then -- took the time to come before us to explain her reasoning. That’s what a good public servant does.
As well, this year’s redistricting decisions have exposed worrying fissures in the high court itself, with pointed opinions from some among the three-justice GOP minority suggesting a loss of cordiality and respect. We are concerned that animosity might widen and become more poisonous if Kennedy is elected chief justice.
Jennifer Brunner is the clear choice for chief justice. Asked about these apparent tensions, Brunner said her first instinct would be to try to restore cordiality simply by talking “with existing members of the court” about their ideas for moving forward.
Brunner’s experience in a range of courts, from trial to appellate levels, and her managerial experience, make her the best-qualified candidate to lead Ohio’s judiciary in a collegial, constructive manner. Voters should elect Jennifer Brunner as chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court on the Nov. 8 ballot. Early voting begins Oct. 12.
On Sept. 21, as part of its endorsement process, the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com held an endorsement meeting for chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a position being contested between two current justices on the Ohio Supreme Court, Republican Sharon L. Kennedy and Democrat Jennifer Brunner. Only Brunner appeared for the interview; Kennedy declined to participate. This will be the first year in a century, per a recent state law, that party labels will be included on general-election ballots for judicial races at the appellate and Supreme Court levels. Listen to audio of this interview below:
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Other resources for voters:
League of Women Voters vote411.org voters’ guide.
Judge4Yourself Cuyahoga County bar association coalition 2022 judicial ratings.
Judicial Votes Count nonpartisan educational state website on judicial candidates.
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