Ohio Constitution News (OCN) is a blog that tracks developments relating to the Ohio Constitution, including Ohio Supreme Court cases, ballot initiatives, state legislation, lectures, and seminars. The blog also reports on new material added to the Ohio Constitution: Law and History website and other items of interest concerning state constitutional law and the Ohio Constitution. Developed by Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus Steven H. Steinglass and maintained by the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library, OCN is not affiliated with the Ohio Supreme Court or with the State of Ohio.
Posted in Posts on Jul 28th, 2017
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on July 26, 2017 that three provisions of a 2015 state law regulating the use of traffic cameras were unconstitutional. Justice Fischer wrote the majority opinion in Dayton v. State, holding that: “R.C. 4511.093(B)(1), which requires that a law-enforcement officer be present at the location of a traffic camera, infringes […]
Posted in Appellate & Common Pleas Court Cases on Aug 10th, 2015
The Second District Court of appeals held that SB 342 did not violate the Ohio Constitution’s home rule provisions. SB 342 requires police officers to be present when traffic cameras are operating, and imposes other restrictions on the use of traffic cameras. The Montgomery County Common Pleas Court ruled that these provisions violated the City […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jul 2nd, 2015
Ohio’s budget act, HB 64, requires that municipalities operating traffic cameras in violation of state restrictions lose local government funding from the state in the amount equal to the fines collected from the cameras. The Ohio legislature recently enacted restrictions on traffic cameras, such as requiring police officers to be present, and other restrictions. See SB 342. Several county […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 28th, 2015
The Lucas County Common Pleas Court held yesterday that State legislation requiring police officers to be present, and imposing other restrictions on the operation of traffic cameras, SB 342, violates the home rule provision of the Ohio Constitution. See Toledo v. State, Lucas C.P. Case No. CI-201501828. The City of Toledo was granted an injunction. […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 6th, 2015
According to the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, the Ohio law requiring a police officer to be present during operation of traffic cameras, SB 342 , violates the Home Rule provision of the Ohio Constitution. The Court granted a permanent injunction in favor of the City of Dayton to stop the state law from going […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 23rd, 2015
State legislation requiring police officers to be present, and imposing other restrictions on the operation of traffic cameras, SB 342 , will not go into effect in Toledo today. See Toledo Blade City gets stay of red-light camera law. A Lucas County judge granted Toledo a preliminary injunction halting the parts of state legislation from […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 16th, 2015
The City of Toledo sued the State of Ohio, seeking a temporary and permanent injunction to prevent Ohio’s new traffic camera legislation, SB 342 ,from going into effect. (See Toledo Blade, Toledo sues over traffic camera ban). SB 342 requires that a police officer be present when a traffic camera is in operation, making traffic […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 5th, 2015
The City of Akron filed a lawsuit in order to stop recent traffic camera legislation from going into effect. SB 342 requires that a police officer be present when a traffic camera is in operation, making traffic cameras economically infeasible for most cities. The new law also creates procedural requirements and states that motorists can […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 26th, 2015
Even with the Ohio Statute prohibiting traffic cameras without a police officer present ( SB 342) and the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling finding administrative appeals of traffic camera tickets constitutional (Walker v. City of Toledo, Slip Opinion No. 2014-Ohio-5461. ), there is still plenty of litigation around concerning traffic cameras. For example, in Butler County, […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 18th, 2014
The Ohio Supreme Court held that administrative appeals of traffic camera tickets did not unconstitutionally usurp the powers of municipal courts as set forth in the Ohio Constitution. The case involved the City of Toledo’s practice of diverting challenges to traffic camera violation notices to an administrative hearing officer set up within the police department. […]
