A ruling last week by a Republican judge demonstrates why Ohioans should approve this November’s “Citizens Not Politicians” ballot issue to end the gerrymandering of General Assembly and congressional districts.

At issue: A bid by opponents to overturn Republican state legislators’ latest foray into bashing trans-sexual Ohioans, Substitute House Bill 68, passed in January, overriding its veto by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

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Voting to override were all Republican General Assembly members present except Sen. Nathan Manning, of North Ridgeville. Also opposing the override were all House- and Senate Democrats present.

HB 68’s key points:

• It forbids physicians from providing a minor with gender reassignment surgery.
• And amid a blizzard of legalese, forbids overseers of interscholastic athletics to let male athletes participate in female athletic competitions.

If you’re wondering why General Assembly Republicans (26 of 33 senators, 67 of 99 representatives) are trying to simultaneously play family doctor and Friday night ref, the reason is demagoguery.

It’s trickier than it used to be for cheap-shot politicians to beat up on non-white Americans and on women. But these days, at least in Ohio, bashing sexual and gender minorities can be just the ticket — even with legislation such as HB 68, so ill-fashioned that even DeWine, a lifelong, pro-family conservative, wouldn’t sign it.

Trans youth in GOP’s crosshair

The American Civil Liberties Union, its Ohio unit, and the Boston-based law firm Goodwin Procter sued in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on behalf of two transgender adolescents and their families to overturn HB 68 on a range of grounds, in part because of the bill’s alleged violation of the Ohio Constitution one-subject rule.

The one-subject rule, part of the constitution since 1851, is aimed against “logrolling,” which the Legislative Service Commission describes as “the combination of unrelated bills into an omnibus bill to secure ‘a degree of support for the measure which it might not have enjoyed on its own merits,’ citing a 1983 study by historian David E. Bowers.

Last week, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook, a Republican, in summarizing a central issue in the lawsuit, wrote that the “plaintiffs will have to leave … Ohio to seek gender affirming care if [HB 68] is enforced … and therefore will be adversely affected by its enforcement.” But Holbrook rejected the challenge to House Bill 68, allowing it to take effect.

Twice tucked into the judge’s ruling are ironic passages that illustrate one futility in today’s Ohio politics. Rejecting arguments that HB 68 it violates the constitution’s one-subject rule — by melding transgender care and athletic regulation — Holbrook wrote that those merging this topics forms “a ‘legitimate subject’ for purposes of the single subject rule … the recourse for those who object is not within the court but is instead with their vote.

Ohio voters aren’t treated equally

Likewise, in rejecting arguments other parts of HB 68 also breached the one-subject rule, “Recourse for those who are dissatisfied with the General Assembly’s determinations [about proper observance of the one-subject rule] must be exercised through their vote as opposed to the judicial system.

Keen advice, your honor — except for the fact that, thanks to gerrymandering, all Ohio voters aren’t treated equally. As Ohio now operates, General Assembly districts were drawn by and for Republicans. That means a state that twice voted for Bill Clinton and twice for Barack Obama has a legislature that is overwhelmingly Republican — and toils to make Ohio a backwater and sometimes a laughingstock.

In November, Ohioans will have the chance to ensure fairly drawn General Assembly districts by voting for the “Citizens Not Politicians” ballot issue, proposed by petition, which would empower a citizens redistricting commission, that excludes politicians, to draw fair legislative and congressional districts.

No way should today’s Ohio, which cast 51% of its vote for Donald Trump in 2016, 53% in 2020, have a House that’s 68% Republican and a Senate that’s 79% GOP.

Plainly stated, last week’s ruling — that only voters, not courts, may curb the General Assembly’s antics — describes an Ohio that, without ratification of November’s Issue 1, doesn’t exist.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with the Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com.

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