Justice French defends 'backstop' comment at GOP rally
An Ohio Supreme Court justice says she was talking judicial philosophy — not politics — when she addressed a Republican crowd about the court serving as a “backstop” for decisions made by GOP officeholders.
Justice Judith L. French, an appointed Republican seeking to retain her seat in the Nov. 4 election, said her remarks at a GOP rally in Powell did not cross the ethical line that counsels judges to be cautious about partisan remarks.
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At a Saturday event at which she introduced Republican Gov. John Kasich, French said, “I am a Republican and you should vote for me. You’re going to hear from your elected officials, and I see a lot of them in the crowd.
“Let me tell you something: The Ohio Supreme Court is the backstop for all those other votes you are going to cast.
“Whatever the governor does, whatever your state representative, your state senator does, whatever they do, we are the ones that will decide whether it is constitutional; we decide whether it’s lawful. We decide what it means, and we decide how to implement it in a given case.
“So, forget all those other votes if you don’t keep the Ohio Supreme Court conservative,” French said.
French explained her remarks yesterday, saying, “The policy decisions stay with the legislators, the policy makers. .?.?. I’m not going to support Republican legislation; I’m not going to support Democratic legislation. It’s not my role.
“I’m a backstop, no matter who you are,” she said. “No matter what party you are, if you want your policy decisions to not be second-guessed by the Ohio Supreme Court, you want a conservative Supreme Court. And that doesn’t have to mean Republican; it means conservative.”
French said she has given the same message to Democratic and union groups.
A note underlying part of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct states: “Judicial candidates have a special obligation to ensure the judicial system is viewed as fair, impartial and free from partisanship.”
But, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said that French’s remarks revealed she is overtly partisan.
“Justice French’s partisan remarks are outrageous and show a disturbing disregard for the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct,” he said in a statement.
“French, a Kasich appointee, has revealed that instead of acting as an impartial justice, she is a partisan political appointee that puts her Republican Party’s agenda above fairly interpreting and enforcing the law,” Redfern said.
Several legal-ethics experts and court-watchers contacted by The Dispatch declined to comment on French’s statements.
French, who joined the court on Jan. 1, 2013, to fill a vacancy, is opposed for election by Democrat John P. O’Donnell, a Cuyahoga County common pleas court judge.
A Sept. 15 Dispatch mail poll of 1,185 voters showed O’Donnell with a 6 percentage point lead over French.
French wrote the majority opinion in the 5-2 ruling this year in which the justices held that an alliance of liberals and conservatives lacked the standing to challenge the constitutionality of JobsOhio, Kasich’s privatized economic-development agency.