The ACLU of Ohio has sued the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office at the Ohio Supreme Court, seeking public records. The move marks the start of a fight enmeshed with President Donald Trump’s aggressive agenda of deporting people that federal officials say are illegal immigrants.
On a national level, the ACLU has been asking sheriff’s departments for “287(g) agreements,” referring to a provision of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to delegate some of its power to cooperating local law enforcement agencies. ACLU attorney Amy Gilbert said that can include deputizing local officials to effectively act as ICE agents and carry out housing or transfer arrangements and other actions.
Geauga County refused to make its agreement public. The sheriff’s office did not deny the existence of such a deal. But rather, according to emails contained within the lawsuit, the office claimed different federal laws preclude it from turning over such a contract. If the ACLU wants it, the county officials said, they should try ICE.
“We know that Geauga County Jail has housed ICE detainees for years, some of whom we have previously defended in court,” said Jocelyn Rosnick, the ACLU’s chief policy and advocacy officer. ” Our lawful demands for timely and accurate information must not be ignored.”
Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand didn’t return a phone call.
Full court press as Obhof eyes Ohio Supreme Court
There is a lot going on at the Ohio Supreme Court outside of the chambers. That includes Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat Fischer throwing an elbow.
While Democratic Justice Jennifer Brunner and Republican Justice Dan Hawkins both are up for reelection, Fischer, also a Republican, told Brunner last week he is considering a bid for her seat.
The move, first reported by The Plain Dealer, would allow Fischer to evade the Ohio constitution’s judicial age limits and extend his time on the court. Fisher is 67 now and will be 70 in January 2029. That means he’d be ineligible to run when his current term expires at the end of 2028.
Trevor Vessels, a Fisher spokesperson, said Wednesday that Fischer hasn’t yet made a final decision.
If Fischer does enter the race, he might leapfrog four Republicans who have lined up to run for the Democratic seat: Rocky River Municipal Court Judge Joseph Burke, Fifth District Court of Appeals Judge Andrew King, Second District Court of Appeals Judge Ron Lewis, and ex-Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Colleen O’Donnell – whose father is former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell.
A fifth Republican has privately expressed interest in the race: Larry Obhof, a former Ohio Senate president who now works as a top lawyer in the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office. He didn’t return a message.
The candidate filing deadline isn’t until February.
Fracking fracas
There have been some earthquakes in southeast Ohio’s Noble County this year. Actually, many earthquakes.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, “some” of the earthquakes between April 22 and May 8 are “likely” linked to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) from Encino Energy, a Houston-based energy company with extensive operations in Ohio. It’s working on an array of state-owned lands, including the Muskingum River watershed and a few protected wildlife areas.
ODNR’s spokesperson didn’t offer a specific number, but Ohio’s network of seismographic stations around the state did. According to the state data, Noble County never recorded an earthquake before 2017. Between then and 2024, it experienced less than five per year. But in the narrow time frame of just weeks cited by ODNR, there were 53 earthquakes. In total this year, there have been 69.
So how many earthquakes should Ohio allow? What’s our risk tolerance for seismographic events caused by the industrial extraction of methane from the ground? It’s an earth-shaking question for industry, regulators and lawmakers to answer. Read our full story here.
Holding or folding on iGaming
As negotiations on the state budget continue behind the scenes, both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate are now simultaneously workshopping different versions of a similar idea: legalizing “iGaming” – betting real money on table games and slots from a smartphone.
The measure could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in new state revenue, welcome cash for a tax-averse General Assembly. However, the heads of both the House Republican and Democratic caucuses were lukewarm at best on the idea when asked about it Wednesday.
House Speaker Matt Huffman lamented how the “floodgates opened with gambling” when Ohio voters allowed brick-and-mortar casinos in 2012, followed by sports betting about a decade later. While the final script hasn’t been written, he gave a bearish take.
“The more available any vice that is addicting – whether it’s alcohol, marijuana, gambling, anything like that – the more abuse there’s going to be,” he said. “I have some very real concerns about the expansion of gambling.”
House Minority Leader Allison Russo, whose Democrats could be needed to pass a bill if enough conservatives side with the religious right and oppose the idea, has several concerns. They include that such a major policy change seems to be moving very fast. She also worries that the online casinos could displace revenue going to the brick-and-mortar casinos, which employ a lot of unionized workers.
And then there’s the question of where the money would go.
“If that money is going to be used simply as a tax cut that most Ohioans will see very little of, or to fund stadiums, as opposed to a necessary funding stream for public education and childcare, we are going to be very firmly opposed,” she said.
Try, try again
For years, Ohio Democrats have been trying to capitalize politically on Columbus corruption scandals.
A group of Democratic state lawmakers renewed the party’s efforts on Wednesday.
State Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney and Dani Isaacsohn announced they’ve reintroduced what they call the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act. The bill would seek to ban political nonprofits known as dark money groups from spending money on politics in Ohio by requiring them to disclose their donors.
Sweeney has introduced similar versions of the bill three times. All have died without action. This year’s version has been designated House Bill 250.
The proposal faced its best political chances after the eruption of the House Bill 6 scandal in 2020, which featured a corruption scheme federal prosecutors said was facilitated by a dark-money group. But the measure failed to gain traction politically in the Republican-controlled legislature. And Republicans swept Ohio’s statewide elections in 2022.
Now, Democrats are trying to leverage the HBO documentary that recently came out about the scandal, showing how long the issue has been percolating.
In an interview, Sweeney said she’s hoping the new documentary will help awareness of the scandal break out beyond the realm of political junkies. She said she isn’t deterred by how Republican scandals have failed to make the GOP pay in the voting booth.
“It’s a lawmaker’s job, and definitely my party’s job, to do a better job of connecting how out of touch Ohio’s legislature is,” Sweeney said. “But in this environment, it’s hard to break through.”
