(The Center Square) – A plan to ask Ohio voters to strip away immunity from government and public employees for civil rights violations didn’t make it past the first step.
Attorney General Dave Yost rejected a petition for a constitutional amendment because it did not contain a title.
“The lack of a title alone provides sufficient cause to reject the submitted petition, and the petition is rejected on that basis,” Yost wrote in a letter to the petitioners.
The amendment would end qualified immunity, sovereign immunity, prosecutorial immunity and other immunities provided to public employees or government subdivisions given to the state.
It would allow for lawsuits with no limit on economic or noneconomic damages.
The proposed amendment comes less than a month after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Yost a full-court review of a ruling that overruled his decision to reject a ballot proposal summary for the proposed amendment, “Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights.”
As previously reported by The Center Square, a three-judge panel ruled that the state’s ballot initiative process likely violated the U.S. Constitution and ordered the proposed amendment and summary to be sent to the Ballot Board.
That proposed amendment would repeal constitutional immunities and defenses in cases alleging civil rights violations by governmental units and public employees.
As previously reported by The Center Square, Yost rejected the proposed ballot amendment for misstatements.
In his rejection letter, Yost said, “We identified omissions and misstatements that would mislead a potential signer as to the actual scope and effect of the proposed amendment.”
The Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity said immunity has led to a lack of accountability for law enforcement officers and has stopped citizens from “seeking justice” for the misconduct of rogue officers.
The effort to remove immunity from Ohio government officials has been ongoing for several years.
