Constitution of Ohio
Congress passed an enabling bill to establish a new state, which President Thomas Jefferson signed into law on April 30, 1802.
Scholars Stephen H. Steinglass and Gino J. Scarselli suggest that St. Clair's Federalist affiliation played a key role in the hasty passage, given that most Ohioans sided with Jefferson's Republican Party.
[5]: 484 In the early decades of statehood, it became clear that the General Assembly was disproportionately powerful as compared to the executive and judicial branches.
The legislature widely came to be perceived as corrupt, subsidizing private companies and granting special privileges in corporate charters.
A new constitution, greatly redressing the checks and balances of power, was drafted by a convention in 1850-51, as directed by the voters, and subsequently adopted in a statewide referendum on June 17, 1851, taking effect on September 1 of that year.
Instead, a second question asked Ohio voters if they wished to permit the licensing of alcohol sales, who rejected the proposition.
[3] A constitutional convention in 1873, chaired by future Chief Justice of the United States Morrison R. Waite, proposed a new constitution that would have provided for annual sessions of the legislature, a veto for the governor which could be overridden by a three-fifths vote of each house, establishment of state circuit courts, eligibility of women for election to school boards, and restrictions on municipal debt.
Several national leaders addressed the convention, including President William Howard Taft, an Ohioan; former president (and Bull Moose Party candidate) Theodore Roosevelt; three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan; California's progressive governor Hiram Johnson; and Ohio's own reform-minded Gov.
Other amendments empowered the legislature to fix the hours of labor, establish a minimum wage and a workers compensation system, and address a number of other progressive measures.
Among the eight losing proposed amendments were female suffrage, the use of voting machines, the regulation of outdoor advertising and abolition of the death penalty.
[8] The current state constitution contains the following articles: We, the people of the State of Ohio, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and promote our general welfare, do establish this ConstitutionWhile the preamble does not enact any positive laws, the Ohio Supreme Court has established that it creates a presumption that the legislature enacts law to promote Ohioans' "general welfare.
[13] More recently, in 2023, Ohioans passed an amendment to guarantee access to abortion in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
[24]: 829 Section 22 also gives the governor the power to appoint a five-member commission to hear cases appealed to the Supreme Court.
Legal scholars Steven Steinglass and Gino Scarselli note that "with the creation of this commission, Ohio literally had two supreme courts functioning simultaneously.
[26] In 2014, it was challenged for violating the National Voter Registration Act, but the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the requirement in Husted v. Randolph Institute.
Attempts to remove this provision have failed, although Ohio statutes require a judicial examination of an individual before ineligibility occurs.
Common school advocates successfully lobbied the convention delegates to recognize education as a right of every child, and every draft of the constitution included such a requirement, which is still present in section 2.
[33]: 107 The state legislature soon took action to rectify the matter by proposing a ballot initiative to raise sales taxes, which voters overwhelmingly rejected.
[33]: 120 Other attempts to rectify the matter legislatively were rejected, but the court eventually granted a writ of prohibition to halt the case in 2003.
[29] This article obligates the state government to support institutions to treat those with mental illness, blindness, or deafness.
Thirty amendments to the constitution have been passed by voters, with twenty-five dealing solely with giving the state government more authority to borrow money.
Between 1903 and the Supreme Court's decision in Reynolds v. Sims in 1964, the constitution mandated that state legislative districts be based on county lines.
In January 2022, however, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the plan, finding that it violated the article's anti-gerrymandering provisions.
Despite the agreement, Republicans remained favored in the new plan, and Democrats renewed calls for a fully non-partisan commission.
[42] Article XIII was adopted in 1851 largely as a response to a series of entanglements between the state government and corporations in the early nineteenth century.
The article institutes general regulations for corporations and prohibits the legislature from granting special powers such as eminent domain to private companies.
In 2009, the legislature proposed to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board and decided to include it under Article XIV in the constitution.
[48] Major gambling companies like Penn Entertainment supported the measure, which permitted the establishment of four casinos in the state, citing the potential for economic growth.
[57] (Originally, the text read "special laws," but legal scholar Harvey Walker states that delegates found this language "obnoxious").
The article also lays out certain requirements for districts, including mandating partisan neutrality and limiting county and municipality splits.
