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Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Courts - "Ohio's republican justices squawk over website"
From the Columbus Dispatch's "Daily Briefing" blog, see this item posted by statehouse reporter James Nash.
Ohio justices are elected, and this eye-catching website supporting two candidates, is named Vote to End Injustice. It urges voters to elect "Trapp&Brown."
From Nash's blog entry:
A website criticizing decisions of the Ohio Supreme Court brings disrepute on the state's top court and should be taken down, two Republican justices wrote in complaints to the Ohio State Bar Association.
Justice Maureen O'Connor, running for chief justice, and Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger, running for reelection, say the website VoteToEndInjustice.com unfairly maligns the independence and judgment of the court. * * *
O'Connor called on the Ohio State Bar Association to publicly declare the website "false, mischaracterized and misleading." Lanzinger went a step further, calling for the "immediate abolishment" of the site. Last month, Lanzinger pressed opponent Mary Jane Trapp to denounce the website, which Trapp declined to do.
Dennis P. Mulvihill, president of the Ohio Association for Justice, defended the website in an interview today. He said most of the information is simply news articles on court decisions, while any criticisms are protected by the First Amendment.
"We're not undermining confidence in the court, and nor are we building up public confidence in the court," Mulvihill said. "We're simply reporting on what the court has done."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 8, 2010 03:22 PM
Posted to Courts in general