Ohio Allow Civil Action Against State and Local Government Entities Amendment (2022)

Ohio Allow Civil Action Against State and Local Government Entities Amendment
Election date November 8, 2022
Topic Civil and criminal trials and Law enforcement
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin Citizens

The Ohio Allow Civil Action Against State and Local Government Entities Amendment was not on the ballot in Ohio as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022.

The amendment would have allowed individuals to bring a civil action against state and local government entities for violating their rights, privileges, or immunities guaranteed under the state constitution.

Text of measure

Full text

• The full text of the measure is available here.

Sponsors

The Committee for a Civil Action for Depravation of Constitutional Right led the Accountability Now Ohio campaign in support of the amendment.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Ohio

The state process

In Ohio, the number of signatures required to get an initiated constitutional amendment placed on the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Ohio also requires initiative sponsors to submit 1,000 signatures with the initial petition application. Ohio has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures be gathered from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Petitioners must gather signatures equal to a minimum of half the total required percentage of the gubernatorial vote in each of the 44 counties. Petitions are allowed to circulate for an indefinite period of time. Signatures are due 125 days prior to the general election that proponents want the initiative on.

The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2022 ballot:

• Signatures: 443,958 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit the signatures was July 1, 2022.

County boards of elections are responsible for verifying signatures, and the secretary of state must determine the sufficiency of the signature petition at least 105 days before the election. If the first batch of signatures is determined to be insufficient, the petitioners are given a ten-day window to collect more signatures.

Details about this initiative

• Cynthia Brown, Sabrina Jordan, Kevin Kahn, Alicia Kirkman, and Marije Rivers filed the original version of the initiative on May 3, 2021.
• On May 12, 2021, the Attorney General Dave Yost (R) rejected the summary of the initiative. He said, "The summary's description of the 'person' who could be sued is misleading. The proposed amendment provides for a cause of action for deprivation of rights against a 'public body' and a 'person acting on behalf of a public body. By contrast, the language contained within the first bullet point of the summary indicates that the proposed amendment applies to a 'public body or individual employed by a public body.' Second, the summary language omits the waiver of sovereign immunity contained in Section (F) of the proposed amendment."
• On August 23, 2021, Cynthia Brown, Sabrina Jordan, Kevin Kahn, Alicia Kirkman, and Marcella Bailey filed a second version of the initiative for review. The campaign manager for the campaign was Emily Cole. The chief strategist was Donald Wiggins Jr. The campaign's legal counsel was Chandi Patel.
• On September 1, 2021, the attorney general rejected the second submission of the initiative because the petition did not contain 1,000 signatures of registered voters. County boards of elections verified 783 valid signatures were submitted.

See also

2022 measures

• 2022 ballot measures
• Civil and criminal trials on the ballot
• Law enforcement on the ballot
• 2022 petition deadlines

Ohio

• Ohio ballot measures
• Ohio initiative laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls
• Ballot measure signature costs

External links

• Initiative text (Re-Submission)
• Original initiative text