Ohio Supreme Court

	Ohio Supreme Court
	Court information
Justices:	7
Founded:	1802
	Judicial selection
Method:	Non-partisan election of judges
Term:	6 years
	Active justices
	Paul Pfeifer • Maureen O'Connor • Terrence O'Donnell • Judith Ann Lanzinger • Judith French • Sharon L. Kennedy • William O'Neill •
	Former justices

From Judgepedia

Revision as of 22:40, 19 May 2012 by Abqualls (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Jump to: navigation, search

[edit]

Ohio Supreme Court
Elections

Share this Court:

Justices

The current justices of the court are:

Judge	Term	Appointed by	Party
Justice Paul Pfeifer	1992-2017		Republican
Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor	2002-2016		Republican
Justice Terrence O'Donnell	2003-2018		Republican
Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger	2004-2016		Republican
Justice Judith French	2013-2014	Gov. John Kasich	Republican
Justice Sharon L. Kennedy	12/7/2012-12/31/2014		Republican
Justice William O'Neill	1/2/2013-2018		Democratic

2012 election

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Term	Primary Vote	Election Vote
RuckerFanon Rucker	No	Democratic	Term commencing 1/2/2013	28.6%
SkindellMike Skindell	No	Democratic	Term commencing 1/1/2013		30.87% D
CuppRobert Cupp	Yes	Republican	Term commencing 1/2/2013		47.48% D
KennedySharon L. Kennedy A	No	Republican	Term ending 12/31/2014		57.02% A
O'DonnellTerrence O'Donnell A	Yes	Republican	Term commencing 1/1/2013		69.12% A
O'NeillWilliam O'Neill A	No	Democratic	Term commencing 1/2/2013	71.3%A	52.51% A
BrownYvette McGee Brown	Yes	Democratic			42.97% D

Jurisdiction

The Ohio Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction in cases regarding the state or national constitution, cases that originated in the courts of appeals, cases of conflicting opinions in the appellate courts, cases involving the death penalty, and may review the Public Utilities Commission and the Board of Tax Appeals.

"The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction to issue extraordinary writs. These include writs of habeas corpus (inquiring into the cause of an allegedly unlawful imprisonment or deprivation of custody), writs of mandamus (ordering a public official to perform a required act), writs of procedendo (compelling a lower court to proceed to judgment in a case), writs of prohibition (ordering a lower court to stop abusing or usurping judicial functions), and writs of quo warranto (issued against a person or corporation for usurpation, misuse, or abuse of public office or corporate office or franchise)."^[1]

Judicial selection

The seven justices on the court, one Chief Justice and six associate justices are elected to six-year terms on a nonpartisan ballot. In the case of a vacancy occurring between elections the Governor would appoint a justice. ^[1] Candidates run on the ballot without their political affiliation, however, the affiliation is known prior to the election as the parties "nominate" the candidates for their primary elections.^[2]

Qualifications

To be a qualified candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, a person must have practiced law for at least six years, must be admitted to the Bar in Ohio and be younger than 70 years.^[1]

Caseloads

Statistics released in May 2011 by the Supreme Court show that case volume for all courts has dropped 16% since 2002. The Supreme Court has maintained approximately the same number of filings as last year, but has been seeing a drop in numbers since a peak at 2,506 in 2008. The Common Pleas Courts has seen a drop of 4% since last year and 9.5% drop since 2006. Mark R. Weaver, a former Attorney General and local lawyer, attributes the drop in cases to the economic downturn and tort reforms that restrict the ability of citizens to file certain types of lawsuits. Finally, divorces dropped again this year continuing a ten year trend, also noteworthy as most did not involve children which has been a growing trend since 2005. ^[3]

Year	Cases pending January 1st	Cases filed	Case dispositions	Cases pending December 31st	Clearance rate
2010	771	2, 293	2,245	819	98%
2009	893	2,363	2,485	771	105%
2008	928	2,506	2,542	892	101%
2007	-	2,459	2,386	927	-
2006	-	2,407	2,592	854	-
2005	-	2,444	2,125	1,035	-
2004	-	2,178	2,114	593	-
2003	-	2,237	2,205	681	-

^[4]

Salaries

The Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court earns $150,850 annually, while associate justices earn $141,600, as of January 2010.^[5]^[6]

Notable decisions

Opinions of current justices

Opinions of Pfeifer

Opinions of Stratton

Opinions of O'Connor

Opinions of O'Donnell

Opinions of Lanzinger

Contract enforcement

Criminal justice

Election law

Family law

Government accountability

Penrod v. Ohio Department of Administrative Services (2007)

Gun rights

State v. Davis (2007)

History of the court

Ohio Supreme Court building in Columbus, Ohio

In 1802, the Constitution was instituted with the creation of Ohio as a state. The Constitution provided a Supreme Court of the state with three judges.^[7] The size of the court increased throughout history--in 1912, an amendment to the Constitution increased the court from three justices to six, and the membership of the court was identified with a Chief Justice and six associate justices.

Notable firsts

Maureen O'Connor is the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of the court. She was elected to the position by voters in the 2010 judicial election.

External links

References

2010

See also: 2010 State Supreme Court elections

Incumbent Eric Brown faced challenger Maureen O'Connor and was defeated.

Ohio Supreme Court 2010 General election results
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Maureen O'Connor	n/a	67.8%
Eric Brown	n/a	n/a

Incumbent Judith Ann Lanzinger faced challenger Mary Jane Trapp and won.

Ohio Supreme Court 2010 General election results
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Judith Ann Lanzinger	n/a	56.9%
Mary Jane Trapp	n/a	n/a

Paul Pfeifer ran uncontested and was elected.

Ohio Supreme Court 2010 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Paul Pfeifer		n/a	n/a

2008

See also: State Supreme Court elections, 2008

Incumbent Maureen O'Connor defeated challenger Joseph D. Russo.

Ohio Supreme Court 2008 General election results
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Maureen O'Connor	n/a	67%
Joseph D. Russo	n/a	44%

Incumbent Evelyn L. Stratton defeated challenger Peter M. Sikora.

Ohio Supreme Court 2008 General election results
Candidates	Votes	Percent
Evelyn L. Stratton	n/a	63%
Peter M. Sikora	n/a	37%

v • d • e

Ohio Supreme Court

Current

Paul Pfeifer • Maureen O'Connor • Terrence O'Donnell • Judith Ann Lanzinger • Judith French • Sharon L. Kennedy • William O'Neill •

Former

Thomas Moyer • Robert Cupp • Evelyn Stratton • Maurice Donahue • Florence Ellinwood Allen • John Peck II • Eric Brown • Yvette McGee Brown • Francis E. Sweeney, Sr. • Alice R. Resnick • Herbert R. Brown • J. Craig Wright • Andrew G. Douglas • James P. Celebrezze •

Personal tools

Log in

Encyclopedia:

Get involved:

Donate

Toolbox

[JA-0] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 The Supreme Court of Ohio Jurisdiction & Authority

[1] Ohio judge candidates allowed to advertise party

[2] Columbus Dispatch, "Ohio experiencing drop in court cases," May 28, 2011

[3] ‘’The Supreme Court of Ohio’’, “Reports & Publications: Annual Reports”

[4] The Sunshine Review, "Ohio state government salary," August 17, 2011

[5] The National Center for State Courts, "Judicial Salary Resource Center" as of Jan. 1, 2010

[6] State of Ohio Legislature

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]