A coalition of progressive groups and a pair of Democratic state representatives are going back to the Ohio Supreme Court over the state’s job creation agency JobsOhio. But as Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports, this time they have some unlikely help.
Progress Ohio and Democratic state Sen. Michael Skindell and Rep. Dennis Murray filed lawsuits claiming Gov. John Kasich’s public-private entity JobsOhio was an unconstitutional corporation with minimal transparency. Two courts threw out their lawsuits, saying they didn’t have standing to sue. Now they want the Ohio Supreme Court to hear their arguments. And they’re getting help from Maurice Thompson at the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a Tea Party-backed offshoot of the conservative think tank the Buckeye Institute.
“These are just judges subjectively imposed their own personal preferences on deciding who can access court and who can’t. And that’s dead wrong,” says Thompson.
The groups are also concerned that lack of standing was the same decision given when the lawsuit challenging electronic slot machines at horseracing tracks was thrown out in May.