(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office rejected on Friday the petition summary of a proposed constitutional amendment, titled “Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights,” which seeks to add a Section 22 to Article I of the Ohio Constitution.
The Attorney General’s Office received the summary on May 24, 2023.
The petitioners originally submitted the summary under the title “Civil Action for Deprivation of Constitutional Rights” on May 3, 2021, and again on Aug. 23, 2021. They then submitted it under the title “The Ohio Civil Liberties Restoration Act” on Nov. 22, 2022, and under the title “Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights” on Feb. 27, 2023.
All of these previous submissions were rejected.
The attorney general’s role in the petition process is to determine whether the language submitted is a fair and truthful summary of the proposed statute or constitutional amendment. The summary language resubmitted in May does not meet that requirement.
A response letter sent to the petitioners says, “We identified omissions and misstatements that, as a whole, would mislead a potential signer as to the actual scope and effect of the proposed amendment.”
The full text of the rejection letter and the petition can be found at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Petitions.