Ohio Laws

A federal judge granted an injunction Sunday barring law officers from interfering with an exhibit of photographs by the late Robert Mapplethorpe. The display had brought about an obscenity indictment against a downtown museum and its director. The Contemporary Arts Center sought the injunction because its officials feared police or sheriff's department officers might remove sexually explicit photographs that a Hamilton County grand jury determined Saturday violated Ohio obscenity laws.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Ohio has blocked an unusual state election law that calls for throwing out thousands of provisional ballots that are cast in the wrong precinct, even when the voter goes to the right polling place. “The Constitution demands a safety net without holes,” said U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in ordering Ohio officials to count the ballots. The ruling arose from a voting rights lawsuit, one of several in Ohio and elsewhere, that seeks to resolve potentially crucial election rules prior to November.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste on Friday granted clemency to 25 women prisoners who he said had committed crimes because they were victims of battering or other forms of physical or emotional abuse. The lame-duck governor said he reviewed 105 cases in which "battered woman syndrome" was suspected. The Ohio Supreme Court and the state Legislature in March established the syndrome as a defense against murder and other crimes. Most of the inmates were serving time for murder, manslaughter and assault.

Opponents of the Ohio law that would limit public employee unions' collective bargaining power out-raised and out-spent the law's supporters more than three times over, according to campaign finance records filed Thursday. We are Ohio, a union coalition that has been leading the repeal effort, by ballot initiative, of the law that passed the Ohio Legislature in March,  has raised more than $30 million in contributions and other assistance, drawing largely on national union organizations.

In its first look at a ban on so-called "partial-birth abortions," the Supreme Court on Monday rejected Ohio's effort to limit how doctors perform some late-term abortions. By a 6-3 vote, the justices refused to hear the state's appeal of two lower court decisions striking down its law. The Ohio measure, the nation's first such law, made it a crime for a doctor to "insert a suction device into the skull of a fetus" so as to shrink its head and thereby safely remove the body from the mother.

Supreme Court ruled Friday that city officials may regulate where newspaper boxes are placed on city streets but that they do not have the authority to decide which newspapers are sold there. In a narrowly crafted 4-3 opinion, the high court struck down a law in a Cleveland suburb that gave the mayor the power to decide which newspapers would get licenses to sell their papers in racks on city streets. Citing the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press, Justice William J. Brennan Jr.

The Supreme Court Monday upheld a series of multimillion-dollar damage awards against major corporations, rejecting claims that they represented "excessive fines" banned by the Constitution. The damage awards--handed down by juries to punish wrongdoing by big businesses--included a $4-million judgment against Atlantic Richfield in Los Angeles, a $6.9-million award won by Downey Savings & Loan against an Ohio insurance company and an $11.2-million judgment against the makers of Playtex tampons.

After refusing to comment on a controversial effort by Ohio Gov. John Kasich to limit public employees' collective bargaining rights, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday delivered an enthusiastic endorsement of the measure. “I'm sorry if I created any confusion,” Romney said Wednesday at a campaign event outside a GOP office in Fairfax, Va. “I fully support Gov. Kasich's - I think it's called Question 2, in Ohio - fully support that.” He later added that he is “110% behind” the measure.

Opposition to the Ohio law that limits the power of public employee unions has grown substantially in recent weeks, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, offering a ray of hope to Democrats and their allies in organized labor as the presidential race heats up. According to the poll, 57% of those surveyed said they would repeal the measure, known as a Senate Bill 5, while 32% said they would keep it. The difference between the...

The bloodshot eyes? He had been working for 10 hours straight. The wobbly walk? Bad knees, that's all. The flunked coordination test? Cataracts, acting up again. John Boddie, a big man in a worn flannel shirt, ran through his explanations fast. The judge listened, sympathetic. But he had other evidence to consider: The slurred speech. A brewery odor. The wildly weaving Ford. Boddie could not explain them away. And so, the judge said: "I've come to the conclusion that you're guilty."

Police started ticketing people in this Cleveland suburb Wednesday for using hand-held cell phones while driving, a violation of a new law believed to be the first of its kind in the country. Police had been issuing warnings rather than tickets since the ordinance's passage in March. But on Wednesday, police handed out several tickets during the day.

In its first look at a ban on so-called "partial-birth abortions," the Supreme Court on Monday rejected Ohio's effort to limit how doctors perform some late-term abortions. By a 6-3 vote, the justices refused to hear the state's appeal of two lower court decisions striking down its law. The Ohio measure, the nation's first such law, made it a crime for a doctor to "insert a suction device into the skull of a fetus" so as to shrink its head and thereby safely remove the body from the mother.

If you're among the viewers who stumbled onto certain congressional hearings on C-Span recently and felt your stomach turn, you're right where abortion foe Janet Folger wants you. She thinks your conscience may turn next. Then, perhaps, your vote. Supporters of abortion rights see Congress' "partial-birth abortion" debate as a blatant attempt to undermine the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which established a woman's right to decide the fate of the fetus developing in her womb.

Police started ticketing people in this Cleveland suburb Wednesday for using hand-held cell phones while driving, a violation of a new law believed to be the first of its kind in the country. Police had been issuing warnings rather than tickets since the ordinance's passage in March. But on Wednesday, police handed out several tickets during the day.

A judge has ordered a permanent ban on a state law restricting late-term abortions and a procedure that involves collapsing the fetus' skull. U.S. District Judge Walter Rice's ruling came two months after he had temporarily blocked enforcement of the law right before it was to go into effect. The state would have been the first in the nation to ban the "dilation and extraction" procedure. A similar ban is pending in Congress.

The White House on Wednesday nominated an Ohio law school professor and a Utah securities specialist to fill two seats on the Securities and Exchange Commission. Isaac C. Hunt Jr., 57, and Norman Johnson, 64, both served as SEC trial attorneys in the 1960s. Hunt is a professor and recently retired dean at the Akron University School of Law. A specialist in securities law, he also served as dean of the Antioch School of Law in Washington.