Title: Rothenberg v. Husted

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Rothenberg v. Husted, Slip Opinion No. 2011-Ohio-4003.] 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in 
an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested 
to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 
65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or 
other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be 
made before the opinion is published. 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2011-Ohio-4003 
ROTHENBERG v. HUSTED, SECY. OF STATE, ET AL. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Rothenberg v. Husted, Slip Opinion No. 2011-Ohio-4003.] 
Elections — Initiative petitions — Proposed constitutional amendment — 
Challenge to sufficiency of signatures — R.C. 3501.38(E)(1) — Status of 
paid circulators as independent contractors does not invalidate part-
petitions merely because circulators listed person or entity paying them as  
person “employing” them — Paid circulators who are not directing the 
signature-gathering efforts of others are not required to file compensation 
statement under R.C. 3501.381(A)(1) — Challenge denied. 
(No. 2011-1344–Submitted August 9, 2011–Decided August 12, 2011.) 
CHALLENGE under Section 1g, Article II of the Ohio Constitution. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} This is an original action challenging the sufficiency of an 
initiative petition proposing a constitutional amendment, the purpose of which, as 
described in the petition, is “to preserve the freedom of Ohioans to choose their 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
health care and health care coverage.”  Because relator, Brian Rothenberg, has not 
met his burden of demonstrating that the petition failed to contain a sufficient 
number of valid signatures under Sections 1a and 1g, Article II of the Ohio 
Constitution to be submitted to the state’s electors at the November 8, 2011 
general election, we deny the challenge.  S.Ct.Prac.R. 13.1(B). 
{¶ 2} Relator’s legal claims lack merit, and the secretary of state’s 
construction of the applicable statutory provisions is reasonable and is entitled to 
deference.  See State ex rel. Lucas Cty. Republican Party Exec. Commt. v. 
Brunner, 125 Ohio St.3d 427, 2010-Ohio-1873, 928 N.E.2d 1072, ¶ 23.  Part-
petitions of compensated circulators are not improperly verified and subject to 
invalidation simply because the circulators, who might actually be independent 
contractors, listed the entity or individual engaging or paying them to circulate the 
petition as “the person employing” them.  See R.C. 3501.38(E)(1), 3519.05, and 
3519.06. 
{¶ 3} Nor are paid petition circulators who are not directing the 
signature-gathering efforts of others required to file a compensation statement 
“for supervising, managing, or otherwise organizing any effort to obtain 
signatures” for a statewide petition.  R.C. 3501.381(A)(1). 
{¶ 4} Finally, even if his challenge had substantive validity, 
Rothenberg’s evidence is insufficient to establish that the part-petitions do not 
have enough signatures. 
{¶ 5} Based on the foregoing, we deny relator’s challenge to the petition 
and the signatures contained therein.  By so holding, we recognize, as we did in a 
previous case involving the proposed amendment, that “[t]his result is consistent 
with our duty to liberally construe the citizens’ right of initiative in favor of their 
exercise of this important right.”  See State ex rel. Ohio Liberty Council v. 
Brunner, 125 Ohio St.3d 315, 2010-Ohio-1845, 928 N.E.2d 410, ¶ 66. 
Challenge denied. 
January Term, 2011 
3 
 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’DONNELL, 
LANZINGER, CUPP, and MCGEE BROWN, JJ., concur.  
__________________ 
 
McTigue & McGinnis, L.L.C., Donald J. McTigue, Mark A. McGinnis, 
and J. Corey Colombo, for relator. 
 
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Richard N. Coglianese, Erick D. 
Gale, and Michael J. Schuler, Assistant Attorneys General, for respondent 
Secretary of State Jon Husted. 
 
Maurice A. Thompson; and Langdon Law, L.L.C., David R. Langdon, and 
Bradley M. Peppo, for respondents Ohio Project, Ohioans for Health Care 
Freedom, Joseph Bozzi, Steven Carr, Christopher Littleton, Jason Mihalick, and 
Alan Witten. 
______________________