Ohio Ballot Board approves signature gathering for proposed amendment to end qualified immunity

A proposed Ohio constitutional amendment that would end qualified immunity that protects government employees such as police officers from lawsuits can start gathering signatures to get on next year’s November ballot.

The Ohio Ballot Board advanced the proposed amendment one step further by ruling during Wednesday’s meeting that the amendment contains only one single issue. 

“We are pleased with the Ballot Board’s determination that this is one single issue and it can proceed to the signature collection phase,” Executive Director of Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity Kyle Pierce said after the meeting. 

The Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity will need to collect roughly 420,000 signatures by the first week of July 2025 in order to get on the November ballot. Then the signatures would need to be verified. 

The signature gathering process has been a recent stumbling block for some proposed constitutional amendment. One Fair Wage tried to get a constitutional amendment on last year’s ballot, but failed to get enough signatures. 

Qualified immunity is a legal shield the United States Supreme Court created that protects government officials, such as police officers and teachers, from lawsuits if they are charged with violating someone’s rights while working in their official capacity. Even though this judicial doctrine has been around for a while, it has been used in recent years to shield police officers in excessive force cases. 

The Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity’s amendment was originally filed in 2022, but the state attorney general rejected several iterations of their amendment. Their most recent proposal submitted in July had no title and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost initially rejected it, but the Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled Yost couldn’t reject the Ohio Voters Bill of Rights based solely on the title, so Yost went back and approved the qualified immunity amendment to go forward with the Ballot Board. 

“Every component of this amendment achieves the goal of that one single question: hold our government accountable when it violates your constitutional rights,” Pierce said in his testimony to the Ballot Board. “If you have immunities, you’re unable to hold your government accountable. If you can’t get damages, you’re able to hold your government accountable. If nothing changes, you’re not holding your government accountable.” 

If this constitutional amendment was to get on the November ballot and voters were to pass it, Ohio would be the first state in the nation to end qualified immunity by the people’s vote. 

Colorado, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico have banned police officers from using qualified immunity as a defense in state court, according to the Institute for Justice.  

William Morgan 

Ohio Ballot Board member William N. Morgan died Nov. 30. He was 89 years old.  

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose swore in new member Steven Cuckler during Wednesday’s meeting. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, recommended Cuckler to the Board.

Cuckler is an attorney who currently serves as the Vice President of Legal and Development of Schottenstein Real Estate Group, according to his LinkedIn profile, and is a Republican member of the Delaware County Board of Elections.

Morgan’s term as Ballot Board member was set to end Feb. 1. 

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