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.
鈥淔olks don鈥檛 like what the legislature has done, and an injunction goes on,鈥� Huffman said Wednesday.
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鈥檚 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鈥檚 short-term ban on 鈥渋ntoxicating鈥� hemp was 鈥渁ntithetical鈥� 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: 鈥淒oes a single Franklin County Common Pleas judge have the authority to enjoin a law or an executive order?鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to look at a number of ways to remedy that,鈥� 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. Huffman, then Senate president, had said at the time: "I think it's a fairly modern phenomenon that a lawsuit is filed in Franklin County only, or some other county, to get a temporary restraining order, which can ripen into a preliminary injunction and also often a permanent injunction issued by that judge who's elected by one county only. And the voters in the other 87 counties don't have any say."
never made it to DeWine鈥檚 desk, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said then it would have muddied judges鈥� abilities.