I respond to the Tuesday Dispatch.com article “Ohio House sets Thursday vote to remove Larry Huseholder as speaker.” It appears the bar has been raised for the impeachment/removal standard in the Ohio legislature.
Just a few short years ago, many public officials, including leaders like then-Auditor Dave Yost and Senate President Larry Obhof and members like Rep. Niraj Antani, sought to invoke legislative removal of a duly elected sitting Supreme Court justice ostensibly for engaging in First Amendment political speech activities — citing violation of the Judicial Code of Conduct, a code which is not imposed by statute or the constitution but rather created and imposed by the autonomous, separate-but-equal judiciary, whose rules are administered, executed and enforced by the state’s high court.
However, nowadays, based on public statements and the lack thereof, it appears the impeachment/removal threshold has been raised to a standard of “only if convicted of a crime.” Republicans told The Dispatch they have reservations about undoing the will of the voters without a conviction.
I do not recall this standard nor these reservations persisting with respect to the legislative effort to remove duly elected, sitting Supreme Court Justice William M. O’Neill. What has changed?
Jason Long, Grove City
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