Dispatch: Politicizing Justice

Gov. Ted Strickland's move yesterday to fill the seat of the late Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer with Franklin County Probate Judge Eric Brown was surprising and disappointing.

Strickland had options in dealing with this vacancy, and he chose the one that crassly interjects partisanship into the Ohio Supreme Court. Brown, backed by Strickland, is running for the chief-justice seat in November against Republican Justice Maureen O'Connor.

Strickland called Brown "uniquely qualified" for the role - high praise for someone who has yet to complete a full term as a judge, either on the Probate Court or when he served before in the General Division of the Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

In fact, when he ran for the Probate Court in 2008, his opponent, incumbent Probate Judge Lawrence A. Belskis, charged that Brown was seeking the Probate seat only so that he could use it to run from cover in a 2010 bid for the Supreme Court. Brown denied this and vowed that he was committed to being a Probate judge and intended to serve his full term. Soon after, he reneged on that promise.

And some parts of Brown's resume simply are opaque. In 2002, Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery notified Brown that she intended to fire him from his post in her office for reasons that never have been made public. He negotiated a departure under circumstances that remain unexplained.

By accepting the appointment as chief justice, Brown gives up his seat on the Probate Court and will not be able to return to it if he loses in November. Given his interest in job security, the likelihood is that Brown only agreed to accept the appointment with a promise from the governor that if Brown loses to O'Connor, he will be appointed to the seat O'Connor vacates when she moves up to chief justice.

Moyer, who died April 2, will be remembered for his push to combat the perception that the court is driven by politics. He worked tirelessly to restore the reputation of a court that once was a laughingstock for its lack of professionalism and its blatant partisanship. It took Strickland all of 12 days to begin undermining Moyer's 23-year effort.

Ohio is blessed with a number of highly qualified legal experts who would have jumped at the chance for such a prestigious temporary assignment. Picking someone with no stake in the election campaign would have signaled that the governor has the same respect for the court that Moyer displayed.

The governor's assertion that his appointment of Brown follows a precedent set by Gov. George V. Voinovich in the appointment of Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and of Gov. Bob Taft in the appointment of Terrence O'Donnell is disingenuous. Neither Stratton nor O'Donnell was appointed to the court while campaigning against another member of the court. Strickland did not give enough thought to the ramifications of injecting a hard-fought political campaign directly into the heart of the court. Doing so is likely to affect the collegiality on the bench and introduces the possibility that, in their consideration of a case, the candidates will not be focused solely on the legal merits but also on how their decision will play with voters.

Nor were Stratton and O'Donnell appointed to the pinnacle of the state's judiciary.

This is the position of chief justice. It has been vacated after being held for nearly 24 years by a man widely revered for his integrity, professionalism and his concern for the court's reputation. And he died unexpectedly less than two weeks ago, leaving his colleagues and other Ohioans who knew him stunned and grieving.

The governor had an opportunity to honor that legacy and rise above partisanship in filling this vital judicial post. He chose to do otherwise.

(Source: Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 4/15/10)