Foresight is better than Hindsight
Ohio Democrats add Chaos to Confusion
March 18, 2020 @ 11:28 pm
As a candidate for Ohio’s 88th house district, I’ve been the recipient of many opinions since this time yesterday. Some have expressed relief that the election has been delayed while others have voiced their dismay. Several have questioned the process. This is a debate that will certainly consume much ink in the next edition of many legal textbooks.
Personally, I’m too busy looking ahead to look back. We are in uncharted waters. This is a crisis that none of us has been through before and we are still not through yet. My vision is focused forward rather than backward and I see a growing Constitutional Crisis ahead. We cannot change the past, but we ought to be vigilant in looking out for the future.
The Ohio Democratic Party wants to add insult to injury with their recent suit filed with the Ohio Supreme Court. While they are not alone in their questioning of recent actions, the remedy they seek simply substitutes the judicial branch for the executive branch, completely bypassing the legislature. If the authority to set the parameters of the election does not belong to the executive branch, how do they justify assigning it to the judicial branch when the Constitution clearly delegates it to the legislative branch?
As is par for the course, the democrats are looking for an activist court to enforce their version of how this election should proceed. I for one, don’t want the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (which I am a part of) to determine the course of this election. Neither do I want the Ohio Supreme Court to mandate what happens next. Regardless of how we got here, we are here. Now it is time for the legislature to take up their constitutional role and determine how we proceed.
Keep your eye on the court. My hope is that the justices will reject the Democrat’s request and allow the legislature to fulfill its constitutionally mandated role. The fear of some is that they may set a bad precedent through judicial activism. If that happens, I fear that it may place this entire election in jeopardy. My consolation is that we do have some solid, textual originalists sitting on the bench who do believe in the rule of law.
Quite frankly, this is not about winning or losing this election. Neither is it about where, when and how we vote. The principles at stake are much larger. This is about preserving our Constitution and the rule of law. Times like these are, however, the reason that we need solid, constitutional conservatives in the statehouse and on the Ohio Supreme Court.
Your Servant,
Gary Click