COLUMBUS, Ohio – Lisa Forbes worries the Ohio Supreme Court is reinventing too many words.
The pattern keeps surfacing in its most controversial cases, said Forbes, a judge on the Cleveland-based Eighth District Court of Appeals and Democratic candidate for the state’s high court.
For instance, the court recently ruled in favor of Statehouse Republicans’ decision to place language on the 2024 ballot stating that a proposed redistricting reform amendment, aimed to end gerrymandering in Ohio, will “require gerrymandering.”
In another case, Republicans on the court upheld a decision to deny a trial to a man who choked on a 1.3-inch bone in an order of “boneless” wings. The court ruled that “boneless” referred to the cooking style and not a guarantee of a lack of bones. The ruling killed the lawsuit before it ever made it to a jury.
The legal reinvention of simple terms from the justices has Forbes concerned.
“The Supreme Court in rendering its decision in that case concluded that ‘boneless’ means something that everybody knows boneless doesn’t mean. I think that’s why it gets so much attention, because it’s shocking,” she said. “If the court can do that, what else can it do?”
Forbes is running for one of three seats on the court up for grabs this cycle. The results could give Democrats a 4-3 majority or a 6-1 minority. The new court could set the new rules around gun rights, abortion access, political representation, taxes and any number of other issues.
The redistricting reform amendment on the November ballot also could end up in front of the court’s seven justices.
Forbes sat for a roughly 60-minute interview with Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. She’s running against Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Dan Hawkins, a Republican. His campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests for an interview, and he declined to attend a separate interview request from the newspaper’s editorial board. The two haven’t shared a stage for a debate or forum since April.
In 2021, Republican lawmakers enacted a new law requiring that ballots state the partisan affiliation (i.e. Democrat or Republican) for candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court. They said they did so to inform voters and avoid voter dropoff down the ballot. Democrats framed it as Republicans’ cynical reaction to their 2018 and 2020 success in the nonpartisan judicial races compared to other statewide races.
It gives voters the wrong impression, Forbes said, and it could give license to justices to start judging like partisans. If not in reality, it will in perception. Plus, she questioned how helpful it is for voters. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that created the legal protections for abortion in America and the 2022 decision that revoked those protections were both written by Republican-majority courts, based on the president who appointed the justices. That untidy history is left out of partisan narratives.
“I think it’s a disservice to the judicial system to the way which cases get resolved, that the first thing we ever here about Supreme Court decisions is, ‘Oh, that was the Democrats, that was the Republicans,’” she said. “The Republicans sought to change the Republicans’ decision. That’s what happened. What does that tell you? It doesn’t tell you very much, right? That’s why I’m really cautious in the role that party plays, or the role that party should play, in the way that judges rule.”
She declined to say whether she identifies herself as pro-choice but said she has volunteered for Planned Parenthood in the past. She’s endorsed by Planned Parenthood, as are the two other Democrats running this cycle. The three Republican candidates are endorsed by Ohio Right to Life, an anti-abortion lobby group. Forbes said she didn’t want to parse what new state constitutional rights guaranteeing abortion access mean given that might be a question for the court to answer. But what’s clear, she said, is voters were unhappy and they voted to put a right to reproductive freedom into the state’s constitution.
“My job is to uphold that. Not only the letter of it, but the intent of it,” she said.
Forbes graduated from Cornell University and the Case Western Reserve School of Law. She worked as a partner in the Cleveland law offices of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease for about three decades. She won her current seat on the appellate court in 2020.
The Supreme Court race between Hawkins and Forbes is for the remaining two years of a term left by incumbent Justice Joe Deters, a Republican who instead of finishing his term opted to run against Democrat Melody Stewart this cycle.
Who is Dan Hawkins?
Hawkins graduated from Bowling Green State University and Ohio State University’s Law School. He spent 13 years in the Franklin County prosecutor’s office, mostly specializing on a unit focused on crimes against women and children. He served as a judge in the Franklin County Municipal Court Environmental Division starting in 2013 until he moved to the county court of common pleas in 2018.
Like other Republicans up for the top judicial races this year, Hawkins declined to sit for interviews with Judge For Yourself, a Cleveland-based coalition of five different attorneys’ associations who interview and publicly evaluate candidates. In April, he and all five other candidates from both parties sat for a public panel hosted by The Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. No debate has been scheduled between the two of them, but Forbes said she’d participate.
In an interview with Straight Shot Politics, hosted by Franklin County Republicans, Hawkins noted a difficulty as a judge in telling voters about yourself without making comments that could raise questions of bias down the line as cases and conflicts arise.
“I have personal issues and beliefs, but I don’t rule on those beliefs,” he said. “I rule based on the law. That’s how we need our system to function.”
Fundraising
Forbes has raised about $875,000 thus far this cycle, as of records available Wednesday. That includes $80,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party. Other significant donors include various law firms and labor unions representing teachers, government employees, steelworkers, service employees and others.
Hawkins has raised about $779,000. That includes $85,000 from the state Republican party. His bigger donors include some unions – the construction trades and operating engineers. Also, the Business Roundtable, Trucking Association, car dealers, the Farm Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and others.
Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
