Ohio Legal Research Blog

Report on invasive species in Ohio

2008-10-28T17:11:00.000-04:00

The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report called Invasive Species in Ohio: Pathways, Policies and Costs. It covers economic impacts as well as the environmental costs, and is full of charts and data that illustrate the damage in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. In addition, the report discusses the inadequacy of federal laws and the weakness of Ohio's laws (see: Table 5 - Ohio's Incomplete Legal Authority).

Judgepedia

2008-10-24T21:17:00.006-04:00

Judgepedia is a wiki encyclopedia about judges and courts, brought to you by the same sponsors of ballotpedia. Judgepedia is a newer project, opening its doors in the spring of 2008. It has a Federal judiciary portal and a State Supreme Court portal. The State Supreme Court Elections page gathers all the upcoming judicial office changes for all fifty states.

The Judges in the news section for Ohio contained a link to a newly released report The New Politics of Judicial Elections in the Great Lake States, 2000-2008, issued by the Justice at Stake Campaign.

New document on public records law

2008-10-24T20:04:00.004-04:00

The Legislative Service Commission issued a new Members Only Brief entitled Public Records Law in Ohio, updating all earlier versions. The document offers a concise explanation of the law, with an appendix listing exceptions from the public records law.

ballotpedia

2008-10-20T18:00:00.015-04:00

To locate a quick list of all of Ohio's ballot issues, try out the information compiled by ballotpedia.org. For Ohio it lists both the certified issues on the ballot and those that did not make it. In addition, there are links to news stories, case law references, and key facts on the current issues. A list of all Ohio ballots (from 1913 to 2007) has been compiled, along with summary information on Ohio's ballot procedures and history. All in all, a great research starting point.

Ballotpedia.org is a wiki, containing data for all 50 states. There are state-by-state charts, and lots of statistics. Anyone may contribute to the wiki after registering. The project started in May 2007 and has two paid editors. It is currently sponsored by the Sam Adams Alliance.

Report on poverty in Ohio

2008-09-29T13:52:00.003-04:00

The Real Bottom Line, The State of Poverty in Ohio 2008 is a report issued at the State of Ohio's first poverty summit. The research was done by Community Research Partners for the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. Researchers can look at the executive summary, the full report with appendices, and a power point presentation of the report.

Researchers may want to make note of Community Research Partners for the data, reports and other information compiled on their web site. The nonprofit is located in Columbus, and is affiliated with the City of Columbus, United Way of Central Ohio, the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, and the Franklin County Commissioners.

Uniform laws

2008-06-03T15:02:00.005-04:00

One web source for current uniform state laws information is done by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). The site contains a database of uniform laws that can be narrowed by state. This database will help to identify active state legislation regarding a uniform law. There is current activity on three uniform laws for Ohio, including a new uniform law, the Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act. For a complete list of uniforms laws for the state of Ohio, it's best to use a combination of sources, including the paper set Uniform Laws Annotated.

Temporary AG appointed

2008-05-28T12:16:00.006-04:00

The Ohio governor announced the temporary appointment of Nancy Rogers as the Ohio Attorney General. At the time of her appointment, she was the Dean of Ohio State's Moritz College of Law. According to the list of Ohio Attorneys General past and present, Nancy Rogers is the second woman to serve in this position. Congratulations!

The Great Lakes Compact and Ohio

2008-05-27T16:45:00.010-04:00

Ohio is about to officially join the Great Lakes Compact. Hearings have been held by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, leaving the Ohio Senate to move on the legislation (SB291; HB416 passed by the House). "Who Owns Our Water," a series from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, follows the historic agreement complete with maps and charts. With Wisconsin's governor just signing legislation, Pennsylvania and Michigan are the remaining states left to join the compact. The illustration is from Our Waters at the Great Lakes Water Institute.

A governor's veto power

2008-05-22T16:44:00.006-04:00

Stateline Midwest reports on Wisconsin's recent tussle over balancing their governor's veto power (ending the "Frankenstein veto"). The article's illustrative map shows the variations in veto power for each of the Midwest governors. The Ohio governor does not have the power of the line-item veto for any type of legislation except the budget bill. The article, "New veto law latest strike in battle over balance of powers," by Tim Anderson, is on page three of the May issue of the newsletter.

The story behind the gavel

2008-05-20T21:02:00.006-04:00

The Supreme Court of Ohio has added the final touch of public art to their refurbished downtown Columbus home. One of the art objects is a 30-foot gavel located on the south side of the building. The artist is Andrew Scott, a foundations and sculpture professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). It took him six years to finish the stainless steel and concrete gavel. For the full story, see District.

On a lighter note

2008-05-15T07:41:00.000-04:00

In 1933, the state of Ohio declared the cardinal to be the official state bird. The laws for state symbols and insignia are codified in General Provisions (sec. 5.03 for the state bird). This wonderful drawing was published in 1808 in American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States : illustrated with plates, engraved and colored from original drawings taken from nature, by artist Alexander Wilson. The illustration can be found in the Library of Congress digital collection, The First American West, contributed by the Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Documents regarding the state AG

2008-05-13T17:25:00.006-04:00

Transcripts concerning the Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann controversy have been posted on Openers, The Plain Dealer politics blog. Today, articles of impeachment were filed against Dann by the Ohio House Democrats. A copy can be found here. He is expected to resign soon.

Some new books on Ohio history

2008-05-11T16:43:00.018-04:00

Ohio's rich history brings a flow of interesting books to the table. Ohio Oil and Gas by Jeff Spencer (Arcadia Publishing, Feb. 2008) looks into the history of the discovery of oil in Ohio. Ohio was once the leading oil-producing state (from 1895-1903). Marathon Oil (formerly the Ohio Oil Company) still operates out of some locations in Ohio.

Built to Move Millions: streetcar building in Ohio, by Craig Semsel (Indiana University Press, March 2008). The book "examines the manufacture of streetcars and interurbans within the state of Ohio between 1900 and 1940." It was during this time that Ohio "had more interurban tracks than any other state in the union."

Resource for Ohio economic data

2008-05-07T15:50:00.012-04:00

The Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions provides loads of economic, health and social data for the state of Ohio. The organization issued a new report yesterday on Employment and Productivity in NE Ohio, 2000-2007, Indicators of Industry Sustainability. The web site is a good source for state budgeting information, including a regularly issued publication State Budgeting Matters. Check their Public Policy Blog for updates. Community Solutions is a United Way agency, so it is no surprise to find a useful database of Ohio Nonprofit Financial Data.

Interstate compacts

2008-05-06T20:32:00.009-04:00

Looking for a good list of interstate compacts? Try the American Bar Association's book: The Evolving Use and the Changing Role of Interstate Compacts: a practitioner's guide (published in 2006). The appendix contains a list of interstate regulatory compacts. While the list is a few years out of date already, (updated through July 1, 2005), it works as a master research tool to start.

Tracking Great Lakes Legislation

2008-05-05T22:30:00.005-04:00

The Great Lakes Legislative Caucus tracks legislation for the states and provinces bordering the lakes. To keep up on the latest actions, federal and state see these pdf lists.

New edition of legislative guidebook

2007-05-07T20:53:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has issued its tenth edition of A Guidebook for Ohio Legislators (2007-2008). This is a most useful and detailed guide on the legislative process in the state.

Fav Chapters:

Ch. 2 The Legislative Branch
Ch. 5 Enacting Legislation
Ch. 6 Tools for Understanding a Bill
Ch. 8 The Ohio Budget Process

and Appendix C:
Directory of Legislative Information

Do not discard

2007-04-26T22:00:00.000-04:00

Alert librarians will have already noticed that the LexisNexis annotated version of the Ohio Revised Code is missing old features as each volume is revised. When the Appendix volume and the General Provision volume were combined into one volume, some genius editor decided to remove the General Code to the Ohio Revised Code comparative section table. It's still available in the other annotated code, including its online version.

Addendum to the new online ORC

2007-04-11T20:32:00.006-04:00

The two things that are missing on the new Lawriter version of the Ohio Revised Code are:
1) the Ohio Constitution, and;
2) the Ohio Rules of Court.

It was convenient to find the Ohio Constitution and the court rules together with the statutes (on the old Revised Code site operated by the Anderson Publishing Company). That web site is no longer operating (onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com).

Now it is necessary to go to separate sites:
for the Ohio Constitution (Ohio General Assembly), and
for Court Rules (Supreme Court of Ohio).

Lawriter's new ORC

2007-04-10T17:28:00.000-04:00

Wow!!! That was fast. The new Lawriter web site is in action, posting the text of both the Ohio Revised Code and the Ohio Administrative Code for the State of Ohio. The news came out in March 2007, announcing that Lawriter has "been awarded an exclusive contract as web publisher" of the online codes as provided to the public by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Lawriter publishes Casemaker Law Libraries, a product available for free to Ohio State Bar Association members.

As promised, the new web version of the code is easier to read. The text of the law is clearly set out and is not buried in frames and folders. Legislative history notes are very limited, not providing more than the most recent date of amendment. There is no reference to the specific legislation that changed the section. Search by word or code section number. No need to agonize over which screen to use for what. The ORC will be updated quarterly, while the OAC will be updated monthly.

Warning: infrequent posts ahead

2007-03-31T20:50:00.000-04:00

The book is in progress and deadlines draw near. There will be infrequent posts for a while until the book is out. New discoveries are made with every sentence. Will share later.

Direct democracy in action

2006-11-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

The initiative petition process has been brought to the fore for this Election Day in Ohio and other states. The Initiative and Referendum Almanac (Carolina Academic Press, 2003) by M. Dane Waters details the process for all fifty-states and other government entities. The bulk of the book is Chapter 4, a state-by-state history and overview; the complete table of contents is here. A useful reference chart is in the Appendix, Section E: listing of statewide initiatives since 1904. The author of Chapter 3 has posted his work "I&R in American Cities: basic patterns," along with more readings on direct democracy.

Constitutional amendments for 2006

2006-11-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

Ohio's fall 2006 General Election brings a number of constitutional amendments to the ballot. Issue one votes will not be counted as it has been ruled that "petitioners failed to timely file sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot;" (See Mahaffey v. Blackwell, 2006 Ohio 5475, appeal denied by the Ohio Supreme Court on Oct. 20, 2006 and earlier 2006 Ohio 5319, decided Oct. 11, 2006 in the Franklin County Court of Appeals). Issues 2,3,4, and 5 have all been proposed by the initiative petition process, while Issue one used the referendum process. For a basic list of all the Issues on the ballot, see the Directory of Ohio State Issues posted by the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

Ohio's digital state ranking

2006-10-06T19:36:00.000-04:00

The Center for Digital Government has released the findings of its 2006 Digital States Survey, ranking Ohio as number three. Michigan is ranked as the number one state, with Virginia coming in second. Ohio has made great progress in the 2006 survey as the state has been ranked as 20th overall in the first five years of the digital survey. The survey looks at data for eight categories: Law Enforcement and the Courts, Social Services, Electronic Commerce and Business Regulation, Digital Democracy, Management and Administration, Taxation, Education and GIS and Transportation.

Ohio's trust laws as Title 58

2006-09-16T18:59:00.000-04:00

A fellow Ohio Legal Researcher reminds us that Ohio's new Trust Code and other trust related statutes are to be Title 58. This is a landmark addition to the Ohio Revised Code as it has been a state code with a tradition of only using odd numbers for the broad subjects of its Titles (nos. 1 through 61). The even numbers have been saved for growth of the ORC. And grow it has. The new Title 58 was enacted into law during the 126th G.A. by Substitute House Bill 416 (Sub. HB 416). It will become effective on Jan. 1, 2007.

A complete analysis of the new law is availabe in Report on HB 416: The Ohio Trust Code. The report lays out the structure of Title 58:

Chapters 5801 to 5811 contain the Ohio Trust Code with Uniform Prudent Investor Act (former sections 1339.52 to 1339.61) included as Chapter 5809;

Chapter 5812 contains the Uniform Principal and Income Act (former sections 1340.40 to 1340.91)

Chapter 5813 contains the Institutional Trust Funds Act (former sections 1340.31 to 1340.37)

Chapter 5814 contains the Uniform Trusts to Minors Act (former sections 1339.31 to 1339.39)

the remaining provisions of 1339 and 1340 will be moved to Chapter 5815, and all existing statutes in Chapters 1339 and 1340 are repealed.

Further analysis of the new law:

The evolution of Ohio trust law from the English common law to the Ohio Trust Code

Cleveland Law Library Association links/FAQs about the law.

LSC Final Bill Analysis for HB 416