The three Ohio Supreme Court races in 2024 will be among the most critical as far as direct impact on the lives, civil rights, voting rights and human rights of Ohioans.
The candidates are now set, with current Republican Justice Joe Deters challenging Democratic Justice Melody Stewart, Republican Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Shanahan challenging incumbent Democratic Justice Michael Donnelly and Republican Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Dan Hawkins facing Democratic 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Forbes for the seat currently held by Deters, a former Hamilton County prosecutor appointed to fill a vacancy after Republican Sharon Kennedy became chief justice in the 2022 election.
The 2022 cycle was the first time Ohio Supreme Court races featured party labels, after lawmakers decided to make the state’s high court openly partisan with a new law. Democratic Ohio lawmakers have introduced legislation to roll back party labels for the Ohio Supreme Court, but with gerrymandered Republican supermajorities controlling both chambers of the Ohio Statehouse, it’s unlikely to go anywhere.
Meanwhile, Democratic Justice Jennifer Brunner has sued to overturn the party label law following her loss to Kennedy for the chief justice position in 2022. That lawsuit is ongoing.
Currently, Republicans control Ohio’s third branch of government 4-3.
Whoever wins the race for Deters’ current seat will have to run again in the 2026 election for a full six-year term. In the other two races, Stewart and Donnelly are both running for re-election after first winning their seats in 2018.
Not up for reelection in 2024 are Republican Chief Justice Kennedy, Republican Justice Pat DeWine, Republican Justice Pat Fischer, and Democratic Justice Brunner.
Kennedy, DeWine and Fischer all won in 2022, meaning their seats won’t be up again until 2028. Brunner first won an election in 2020, meaning her seat will be up again next in 2026.
If Republicans sweep the races in 2024, Ohio will have a 6-1 Republican supreme court starting in 2025. If Democrats sweep the races in 2024, Ohio will have a 4-3 Democratic supreme court starting in 2025. If Stewart and Donnelly win re-election, but Republicans maintain the seat currently held by Deters, Republicans would keep their 4-3 majority on the court, though Deters would be out in favor of Hawkins. If Republicans win two of the three races, they’d increase their majority to 5-2. Republicans have controlled a majority on the Ohio Supreme Court since 1986.
While next year the U.S. presidential race and Ohio’s U.S. Senate race will get the vast majority attention, it’s hard to overstate just how important the state supreme court will be when it comes to all kinds of things that affect the lives of everyday Ohioans: public education and private school vouchers, health care, fossil fuel and environmental issues, public corruption, criminal justice issues, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and gerrymandering.
Former Ohio Republican swing-vote Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor is spearheading an effort in 2024 to kick politicians out of the redistricting process in favor of a citizen commission. This comes after the Republican politicians on the Ohio Redistricting Commission ignored seven bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court rulings against gerrymandered Statehouse and U.S. Congressional maps. This forced Ohio voters to cast ballots under unconstitutional maps in 2022.
If voters pass further redistricting reform in 2024, the Ohio Supreme Court will likely eventually consider litigation on whatever maps are produced by a citizen commission.
Meanwhile, after 57% of Ohio voters passed the Issue 1 reproductive rights amendment in November, a wide variety of anti-abortion laws still remain on the books. Those laws will have to be litigated in lawsuits that are likely to make their way to the Ohio Supreme Court. This means that the court will likely end up deciding on the extent the amendment passed by voters actually protects our rights and what kind of limits on abortion care lawmakers can impose under the amendment.
Furthermore, the court is in the position to decide on issues such as gun violence prevention, renewable energy and fossil fuel extraction. An ongoing lawsuit from public school districts against Ohio’s private and religious school voucher program is also likely to make its way eventually to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court also often reviews utility riders and rate increases, which matters in context of Ohio’s $1.3 billion utility bailout and political bribery scandal.
This is all just a small sampling of the types of cases that might come before the Ohio Supreme Court for review over the next few years.
State Supreme Court races don’t often grab the most attention or get the most headlines, but when it comes to matters of critical significance to the lives of Ohioans, few races matter more. Ohioans would be wise to remember that in 2024.
This commentary was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.
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