An Ohio legislative leader has again indicated he wants to limit the authority of county judges before the end of the year, after a stymied effort to do so last session.
In the last few years, unappealable restraining orders and injunctions in the courts of counties with major cities have slow-rolled GOP-backed state laws to ban abortion at fetal viability, end gender transition treatments for minors and, most recently, reorganize the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) Board.
House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said Wednesday he believes those orders have become too far-reaching.
“Folks don’t like what the legislature has done, and an injunction goes on,” Huffman said.
Most legal challenges to the bills coming out of the Ohio Legislature or the executive orders issued by the governor start in one of the state’s numerous county courts. By request, a judge can pause a law from taking effect as active litigation plays out.
Earlier this week, a Franklin County judge granted a 14-day restraining order from the bench, saying Gov. Mike DeWine’s short-term ban on “intoxicating” hemp was “antithetical” to the existing definition of hemp in the Ohio Revised Code.
When asked by the Statehouse News Bureau about whether DeWine acted outside his authority, Huffman said it raised another question: “Does a single Franklin County Common Pleas judge have the authority to enjoin a law or an executive order?”
“We’re going to look at a number of ways to remedy that,” Huffman said, adding the goal was to do it by November.
In May 2024, the GOP-majority Ohio Senate added a similar measure making those orders appealable to an unrelated bill on electronic court filings. Then-Senate President Huffman said it he felt it was becoming more and more common for orders “issued by that judge who’s elected by one county only, and the voters in the other 87 counties don't have any say.”
House Bill 305 never made it to DeWine’s desk, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said then it would have muddied judges’ authority.
