Since the departure of former Justice Bill O’Neill in January, it’s been an all-Republican Supreme Court of Ohio, although there is often significant difference in viewpoint among those Republicans. Take the rights of juveniles, for example.  There’s still a big split on those cases, with Chief Justice O’Connor leading the charge in recognizing all the current brain science about juveniles, and advocating for protections which recognize the differences between juveniles and adults, and the retiring Justice O’Donnell, the least sympathetic to juvenile offenders, with Justice Kennedy not far behind. Other differences in viewpoint discussed in our blog posts are in standing issues, state actors as agents of the police, statutes of limitations, Fourth Amendment issues, and the exclusionary rule, just to name a few.

Elected yesterday were Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Donnelly, who defeated Judge Craig Baldwin of the Fifth District Court of Appeals, and Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Melody Stewart, who defeated Justice Mary DeGenaro, the incumbent who was appointed to the Court in January by Governor Kasich to replace Justice O’Neill. Judge Stewart is the first African American woman ever elected to the state’s high court. And the Court still retains its female majority.

The last day of Justice O’Donnell’s term is December 31, 2018; Justice DeGenaro’s last day is January 1, 2019. So the current court is busy finishing all matters the two have participated in.  The two newest justices will get right to work in January, with a very busy docket of cases.  The Court stopped hearing oral arguments at the end of August, 2018, to complete the work of the current court by year’s end. It will be interesting to see what new alliances form, and around what issues, when court resumes in January.