A four-year battle between Ohio’s Republican attorney general and a group that wants voters to end qualified immunity for government employees, including police officers, is over. The ballot issue will move forward to the next step after the US Supreme Court ruled against Ohio’s attorney general, who had asked the court to block it.
Attorney General Dave Yost certified the summary language for a proposal from the Coalition to End Qualified Immunity so it can move to the next step, after the US Supreme Court declined his request to stop an earlier ruling from a lower court.
"There are two sides to this argument. The 6th Circuit is on one, and several other circuits on the other," Yost said of the high court's denial of his request. "They just declined to get involved in this one. They're leaving it for another day to resolve that split. So we need to move forward. I am bound by my oath to move forward, whether I think it's right or not."
Yost had previously rejected the qualified immunity group’s language eight times, saying each time the language wasn't a fair and accurate representation of the issue. But attorney Mark Brown, a Capital University law professor who represents three voters in the group, said Yost did that because he disagrees with the issue.
“He pulled no punches. He was doing his darndest to keep us off the ballot. And he finally ran out of road at the Supreme Court," Brown said in an interview. "He was way out of bounds—Trumpian even."
Yost said that’s not true, noting he’s approved summary language for issues he’s opposed, such as the 2023 constitutional amendment guaranteeing reproductive rights and abortion access.
"I campaigned against the thing. I sent it to the ballot. Issue 2 with marijuana, I campaigned against it," Yost said. "That dog just doesn't hunt. The bottom line is the lawyering on it was sloppy and misleading."
The language now moves to the Ohio Ballot Board, a majority-Republican panel that sparked lawsuits for the language it changed and approved on abortion in 2023 and redistricting in 2024. But Brown said the Ballot Board already approved a variant of their language last year, so he's confident.
Yost said he still thinks the language is a problem. He said his office is working with lawmakers on changing the ballot initiative summary process “to protect the integrity of Ohio’s elections and freedom of speech.”
Brown said the group is discussing its strategy to get the issue to this year’s ballot, which would involve getting nearly 443,000 signatures by early July.
