On September 4, 2015, the
Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) and Ohio Gas Association (OGA) filed an amicus curiae
brief with the Ohio Supreme Court in support of the Ohio
Secretary of State’s ruling to invalidate three proposed county charter
petitions in Athens, Fulton and Medina counties.
Last month, the Ohio
Secretary of State removed those petitions from the November 2015 election
ballots because they would supersede state regulations by including a ban on
oil and gas development within the counties’ limits. A group of voters claimed
that the Secretary of State “arrogat[ed] to himself the power to peremptorily
‘invalidate’ the three Petitions” based on objections that it lacks reliable
legality.
OOGA and OGA’s members
contended in their brief that “as the chief election official in the State, the
Secretary is entrusted with the authority to determine whether initiative
petitions, like the Petitions, may lawfully be enacted by the county
electorate, and he has the responsibility to prevent unlawful ballot petitions
from reaching the electorate. He did just that.”
To support their
statements, they argued that the Secretary of State is not limited to review
the petition form procedures, but is entitled to exercise “quasi-judicial
authority” based on section 307.95 of the Ohio Revised Code. As a result, the
Secretary must “review, examine and certify” the content and substance of the
petitions. In addition, they claimed that people of Athens, Fulton and Medina
counties are not exempt from federal or state preemption.
The case remains
pending in the Ohio Supreme Court at docket no. 2015-1371.
This is an update of an
original post dated from August 26, 2015.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
09/09/2015
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