An amendment to shut down the legal shield covering police officers and other government employees in Ohio can go forward to the next step. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost approved the proposal after more than two years of attempts by the group working to pass it.
The Ohio Supreme Court ordered Yost to review the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity's proposal. The group sued after Yost rejected their submission in March based on its title, which the court said he didn't have the authority to do in a different case involving a proposal to repeal some voting laws.
The group had submitted a new amendment in July, with no title. Yost said in his letter approving the amendment for the next step on Monday that his role "is limited to determining whether the wording of the summary properly advises potential petition signers of a measure’s material components." He added that the court's decision ordering his review "does not change my determination that the summary is misleading."
The coalition’s Kyle Pierce said this amendment has been reworked nine times since it was first filed in 2022.
“Each time he's rejected it. And each time it got to increasingly meticulous and arbitrary reasons for rejecting this summary language," Pierce said. "We're very pleased to see Attorney General Dave Yost has fulfilled a statutory duty in certifying the summary language this time around."
"Our amendment would bring accountability back to our governments," said Pierce. "It would end the court-created qualified immunity, prosecutorial immunity. It would allow us to hold the government accountable through the civil courts, not the criminal courts."
Advocates to end qualified immunity say it's allowed government employees to violate citizens' rights without repercussions. While the concept of qualified immunity is usually associated with law enforcement, Pierce said this would include other government workers such as prosecutors and university employees.
The Ohio Ballot Board will determine if the proposal is one ballot issue or more. The group would need 420,000 valid signatures and Pierce said they’re aiming for next year’s ballot.
“This is an urgent matter. It happens too often in Ohio where our rights are violated by our government and we have no recourse and it's pretty unacceptable," Pierce said.
Those who advocate for continuing qualified immunity argue that if it's removed, government employees would face endless lawsuits, and governments - and by extension, taxpayers - would be forced to pay higher insurance premiums. It's been a campaign issue, with Republicans supporting qualified immunity, especially for police.
