[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 

ex rel. Espen v. Wood Cty. Bd. of Elections, Slip Opinion No. 2017-Ohio-8223.] 

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. 2017-OHIO-8223

THE STATE EX REL. ESPEN v. WOOD COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS ET AL.

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 

may be cited as State ex rel. Espen v. Wood Cty. Bd. of Elections, Slip Opinion 

No. 2017-Ohio-8223.] 

Elections—Initiative—Mandamus and prohibition—County board of elections not 

authorized to decide legality or constitutionality of proposed charter 

amendment’s substantive terms—R.C. 3501.28(M)(1)(a) violates 

separation-of-powers doctrine by attempting to confer judicial review 

power on boards of elections—Board of elections did not abuse discretion, 

engage in fraud or corruption, or ignore applicable law in validating 

contested signatures on initiative petition—Writs denied. 

(No. 2017-1313—Submitted October 11, 2017—Decided October 19, 2017.) 

IN MANDAMUS and PROHIBITION. 

________________ 

 

 
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Per Curiam. 

{¶ 1} In this expedited election case, relator, David W. Espen, seeks a writ 

of mandamus and/or a writ of prohibition to compel respondent, the Wood County 

Board of Elections, to remove a charter amendment petition from the November 

2017 ballot. We deny the writs. 

Background and procedural motions 

{¶ 2} On August 7, 2017, the city of Bowling Green received a petition 

proposing an amendment to the city charter adding a new Article I, Section 1.05, 

titled “Community Rights to a Healthy Environment and Livable Climate.” On 

September 6, the Wood County Board of Elections certified the proposed 

amendment to the November 2017 ballot. 

{¶ 3} Espen filed a letter of protest on September 11. The board held a 

hearing, and on September 19, issued a written decision overruling the protest. 

{¶ 4} Espen filed the present expedited election complaint the same day. 

The board of elections filed an answer on September 25, 2017. On October 2, the 

board filed a motion for leave to file an amended answer, after noticing that its 

original answer had inadvertently admitted the factual averments in paragraph 21 

of the complaint, which the board wished to deny. We grant that motion. 

{¶ 5} The members of the Committee of Petitioners for the Bowling Green 

Charter Amendment, Lisa Kochheiser, Jennifer Karches, Joseph R. DeMare, and 

Bradley M. Holmes (“the committee”), filed an unopposed motion for leave to 

intervene, a proposed answer, and an amicus brief in support of the board of 

elections. We construe Civ.R. 24 liberally to permit intervention. State ex rel. 

Merrill v. Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources, 130 Ohio St.3d 30, 2011-Ohio-4612, 

955 N.E.2d 935, ¶ 41. Pursuant to Civ.R. 24(B)(2), we grant the motion to 

intervene and accept the amicus brief as the committee’s brief on the merits. 

 
January Term, 2017 

3

Legal analysis 

{¶ 6} Espen raised two issues in his protest before the board of elections. 

First, he challenged the validity of the petition, alleging that it exceeded the 

municipal powers of self-government set forth in the Ohio Constitution. And 

second, he alleged that the petition had insufficient valid signatures to qualify for 

the ballot because five signatures the board accepted should have been invalidated. 

After hearing testimony and reviewing documents, the board concluded that the 

five contested signatures were valid and that Espen had “presented no testimonial 

evidence to support his contention that the proposed Bowling Green Charter 

Amendment exceeded the scope of municipal initiative power.” 

{¶ 7} When reviewing a decision of a county board of elections, the 

standard is whether the board engaged in fraud or corruption, abused its discretion, 

or acted in clear disregard of applicable legal provisions. State ex rel. Jacquemin 

v. Union Cty. Bd. of Elections, 147 Ohio St.3d 467, 2016-Ohio-5880, 67 N.E.3d 

759, ¶ 9. 

1. The protest against the substance of the petition

{¶ 8} Ohio Constitution, Article XVIII, Section 3, provides that 

municipalities “have authority to exercise all powers of local self-government and 

to adopt and enforce within their limits such local police, sanitary and other similar 

regulations, as are not in conflict with general laws.” This authority is also 

extended to the people acting in their sovereign capacity: “The initiative and 

referendum powers are hereby reserved to the people of each municipality on all 

questions which such municipalities may now or hereafter be authorized by law to 

control by legislative action * * *.” Ohio Constitution, Article II, Section 1f.

{¶ 9} A municipal ordinance created under the power of local selfgovernment “must relate ‘solely to the government and administration of the 

internal affairs of the municipality.’ ” In re Complaint of Reynoldsburg v. Columbus 

S. Power Co., 134 Ohio St.3d 29, 2012-Ohio-5270, 979 N.E.2d 1229, ¶ 25, quoting 
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Beachwood v. Cuyahoga Cty. Bd. of Elections, 167 Ohio St. 369, 148 N.E.2d 921 

(1958), paragraph one of the syllabus. The limitations on municipal lawmaking in 

Article XVIII, Section 3 apply with equal force to municipal charter provisions. 

Ohio Constitution, Article XVIII, Section 7. 

{¶ 10} Espen contended that the proposed charter amendment violates 

Article XVIII, Section 3 in at least four ways. Proposed Article I, Section 1.05(a) 

of the charter provides: 

The people of the City of Bowling Green, and the natural 

communities and ecosystems in Bowling Green, possess the right to 

a healthy environment and livable climate. That right shall include 

the right to be free from new infrastructure for fossil fuel 

transportation within the City of Bowling Green or on property 

owned by the City of Bowling Green, except for infrastructure to 

transport fossil fuels to end-users within Wood County. 

{¶ 11} Espen challenges this provision as a regulation of commerce that 

occurs outside Bowling Green’s municipal boundaries and therefore beyond the 

city’s authority to enact. Subpart (b) of the charter amendment provides: “City of 

Bowling Green law enforcement, and cooperating agencies acting within the 

jurisdiction of the City of Bowling Green, shall have no lawful authority to surveil, 

detain, arrest, or otherwise impede persons enforcing these rights.” 

{¶ 12} Espen further challenges this clause as a regulation of county, state, 

and federal law-enforcement officials, which Bowling Green is without authority 

to enact.1

 And he opposes other sections of the charter amendment on the grounds 

that they purport to regulate the jurisdiction of the courts. 

 

1

 Espen also alleges that subpart (b) of the amendment is defective because it is administrative in 

nature. In State ex rel. Sensible Norwood v. Hamilton Cty. Bd. of Elections, 148 Ohio St.3d 176, 
January Term, 2017 

5

{¶ 13} However, the question before the court is not whether the proposed 

amendment would be constitutional if enacted, but whether the board of elections 

has the authority to make that determination. And in answer to that question, we 

have held: 

The boards of elections * * * do not have authority to sit as 

arbiters of the legality or constitutionality of a ballot measure’s 

substantive terms. An unconstitutional amendment may be a proper 

item for referendum or initiative. Such an amendment becomes void 

and unenforceable only when declared unconstitutional by a court 

of competent jurisdiction. 

(Emphasis sic.) State ex rel. Youngstown v. Mahoning Cty. Bd. of Elections, 144 

Ohio St.3d 239, 2015-Ohio-3761, 41 N.E.3d 1229, ¶ 11. 

{¶ 14} Our jurisprudence limiting the authority of board of elections to 

review the constitutionality of proposed measures rests squarely on separation-ofpowers considerations. Youngstown at ¶ 11 (holding that decisions of constitutional 

interpretation belong to the courts, not the boards of elections). The separation of 

powers is “implicitly embedded in the entire framework of those sections of the 

Ohio Constitution that define the substance and scope of powers granted to the three 

branches of state government.” S. Euclid v. Jemison, 28 Ohio St.3d 157, 159, 503 

N.E.2d 136 (1986). 

{¶ 15} Contrary to the argument advanced by the parties, the statutory 

amendments made by 2016 Sub.H.B. No. 463 do not change this result. Newly 

 

2016-Ohio-5919, 69 N.E.3d 696, we upheld the decision of a board of elections refusing to place a 

measure on the ballot “[b]ecause a significant portion of the proposed ordinance [was] 

administrative.” (Emphasis added.) Id. at ¶ 20. Unlike the ordinance at issue in Sensible Norwood, 

the current proposal cannot fairly be characterized as administrative when considered in its totality. 
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enacted R.C. 3501.38(M)(1) requires county boards of elections to examine 

petitions to determine 

(a) [w]hether the petition falls within the scope of a 

municipal political subdivision’s authority to enact via initiative, 

including, if applicable, the limitations placed by Sections 3 and 7 

of Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution on the authority of 

municipal corporations to adopt local police, sanitary, and other 

similar regulations as are not in conflict with general laws, and 

whether the petition satisfies the statutory prerequisites to place the 

issue on the ballot. The petition shall be invalid if any portion of the 

petition is not within the initiative power * * *. 

This attempt by the General Assembly to grant review power to the election boards 

violates the Constitution because “ ‘the administration of justice by the judicial 

branch of the government cannot be impeded by the other branches of the 

government in the exercise of their respective powers.’ ” State v. Bodyke, 126 Ohio 

St.3d 266, 2010-Ohio-2424, 933 N.E.2d 753, ¶ 45, quoting State ex rel. Johnston 

v. Taulbee, 66 Ohio St.2d 417, 423 N.E.2d 80 (1981), paragraph one of the syllabus. 

To the extent that R.C. 3501.38(M)(1)(a) authorizes and requires boards of 

elections to make substantive, preenactment legal evaluations, it violates the 

separation-of-powers doctrine and is unconstitutional.2

{¶ 16} We agree with the board of elections that it had no authority to 

invalidate the charter petition based on a substantive evaluation of its legality, and 

we affirm the rejection of Espen’s first protest argument. 

 

2

 Other provisions enacted as part of 2016 Sub.H.B. No. 463, such as R.C. 3501.11(K)(2), are not 

implicated in this case, because they relate exclusively to the adoption of county charter 

amendments. 
January Term, 2017 

7

2. The protest against the validity of the signatures

{¶ 17} Alternatively, Espen claimed that the petition failed to qualify for 

the ballot because in certifying the amendment proposal, the board verified five 

invalid signatures. To qualify for the ballot, the petition needed 714 valid 

signatures. The board of elections verified 715 signatures. Thus, if successful, 

Espen’s protest would have left the petition with too few signatures. 

{¶ 18} The challenge was based on R.C. 3501.38(C), which requires each 

signer of a part-petition to indicate the date of signing and the location of the 

signer’s voting residence. “The voting address given on the petition shall be the 

address appearing in the registration records at the board of elections.” R.C. 

3501.38(C). A board of elections “may” disqualify a petition signature when the 

residence listed by the signer is not the same as the residence on file with the board 

for that signer. In re Protest Filed by Citizens for the Merit Selection of Judges, 

Inc., 49 Ohio St.3d 102, 106, 551 N.E.2d 150 (1990). 

{¶ 19} Espen identified five alleged mismatches: 

 On their voter-registration forms, Kylor Kavahi, Cara Kalouris, and Sarah 

Wilmore each listed 1417 East Wooster Street as their residential address. 

But when they signed the petition, Kalouris and Wilmore wrote 1417 

Bromfield, and Kavahi wrote 1417 Harshman Bromfield. 

 Jacob Dyer registered at 522 Thurstin Street, but wrote “GT09-03 Kappa 

Sigma” as his address on the part-petition. 

 Olivia Diehl registered at 311 Mercer Road, Apt. D336, but listed 

“Kreischer Darrow” on the petition as her address. 

{¶ 20} However, the board of elections determined that in each case, the 

address on the petition was effectively the same as on the registration form. Terry 

Burton, deputy director of the board of elections, testified at the protest hearing that 

the addresses were the same. With respect to Kavahi, Kalouris, and Wilmore, 

Burton testified that 1417 is the street address, and Harshman Bromfield is the name 
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8

of the dormitory. According to Burton, the board of elections treats both 

designations as denoting the same address: 

Well, in the example of [Kavahi], she registered under the 

East Wooster Street address, and in our voter registration system, 

that is automatically converted to the Bromfield address. Our 

understanding is that those are equivalents in our system. 

And so if they would have listed the Bromfield address in 

the voter registration system, we would have entered it there with 

the mailing address as being Wooster. If they register at the Wooster 

Street address, we list it as Bromfield with Wooster as the mailing 

address. 

{¶ 21} The same is true of Dyer, who listed the name of his fraternity house 

instead of its street address on the petition, and Diehl, who listed her dorm room 

rather than its address. 

{¶ 22} In treating the two designations as synonymous, the board of 

elections was following the directions of the secretary of state, who has instructed 

the boards of elections not to disqualify every apparent mismatch: 

If an elector’s address given on the petition differs from that 

on file with the board, then the board must invalidate that signature 

unless the signer has provided the elector’s residence information in 

a format that is consistent with postal regulations as opposed to the 

political subdivision on file with the board of elections (e.g., writing 

“Columbus” as the city when the elector’s political subdivision is 

“Perry Township”). A board must not reject a signature solely based 

on this difference. 
January Term, 2017 

9

(Emphasis sic.) Ohio Secretary of State Directive 2017-15 (Aug. 8, 2017), see Ohio 

Election Official Manual, Chapter 11, Section 1.05(C).3

 The secretary’s directive 

is consistent with the purpose of R.C. 3501.38, which is “to enable the board of 

elections to determine whether a signer of the petition timely signed the petition 

and is a registered voter.” Blackmore v. Nasal, 74 Ohio App.2d 382, 383-384, 599 

N.E.2d 298 (2d Dist.1991). 

{¶ 23} When the secretary of state, as the state’s chief election officer, has 

adopted a reasonable construction of an elections statute, this court must defer to 

that interpretation. State ex rel. Colvin v. Bruner, 120 Ohio St.3d 110, 2008-Ohio5041, 896 N.E.2d 979, ¶ 57. The board of elections has verified that the five 

contested signatures came from registered electors. We see no reason to 

disenfranchise those voters for using a different designation of their residential 

addresses when that designation is the equivalent of the street address listed on their 

registration forms. 

{¶ 24} We affirm the board of elections’ decision rejecting Espen’s second 

protest argument. 

Conclusion 

{¶ 25} Because we find that Espen’s protest had no merit, we deem it 

unnecessary to address the committee’s procedural objections to the protest and this 

lawsuit. We hereby deny the petitions for writs of mandamus and prohibition. 

Writs denied. 

O’CONNOR, C.J., and O’NEILL and FISCHER, JJ., concur. 

O’DONNELL, J., concurs in judgment only. 

FRENCH, J., concurs in part and dissents in part, with an opinion joined by 

KENNEDY and DEWINE, JJ. 

 

3

https://www.sos.state.oh.us/globalassets/elections/directives/2017/dir2017-15_eom_ch_11.pdf. 
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_________________ 

FRENCH, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part 

{¶ 26} I concur in the majority’s decision to grant the motions for leave to 

file an amended answer and for leave to intervene. With respect to the merits, 

however, I respectfully dissent and would grant a writ of mandamus compelling the 

Wood County Board of Elections (“board”) to remove the charter-amendment 

petition from the November 2017 ballot based on the lack of sufficient signatures. 

{¶ 27} Relator, David W. Espen, raised two issues in his unsuccessful 

protest. First, he argued that the petition did not include a sufficient number of 

valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. He specifically identified five signatures 

that he claims the board was legally required to invalidate. Second, Espen argued 

that the petition exceeded the municipal powers of self-government, as set forth in 

the Ohio Constitution. I agree with Espen that the petition was procedurally 

defective because it lacked a sufficient number of valid signatures to qualify for the 

ballot. 

{¶ 28} To qualify for the ballot, the petition required 714 valid signatures. 

The board verified as valid 715 of the 1,230 signatures submitted. Espen 

challenged five of the verified signatures as invalid under R.C. 3501.38(C). He 

contends that the board had a legal duty to invalidate those signatures. 

{¶ 29} When this court reviews a board of elections’ decision, the standard 

is whether the board engaged in fraud or corruption, abused its discretion or acted 

in clear disregard of applicable legal principles. State ex rel. Jacquemin v. Union 

Cty. Bd. of Elections, 147 Ohio St.3d 467, 2016-Ohio-5880, 67 N.E.3d 759, ¶ 9. 

{¶ 30} R.C. 3501.38 prescribes rules governing petitions presented to a 

board of elections and includes specific requirements applicable to petition signers. 

For example, R.C. 3501.38(A) provides that only electors qualified to vote on the 

subject of a petition may sign the petition. R.C. 3501.38(C) states: 
January Term, 2017 

11 

Each signer shall place on the petition after the signer’s name 

* * * the location of the signer’s voting residence, including the 

street and number if in a municipal corporation or the rural route 

number, post office address, or township if outside a municipal 

corporation. The voting address given on the petition shall be the 

address appearing in the registration records at the board of 

elections. 

R.C. 3501.38(C) thus contains two requirements. First, if the residence is in a 

municipal corporation, each signer must identify his or her voting residence by 

street name and number. Second, the voting address listed on the petition must be 

the same as the address that appears in the board’s voter-registration records. 

{¶ 31} “[S]trict compliance is the default for election laws and * * * that 

standard is lowered only when the statutory provision at issue expressly states that 

it is.” State ex rel. Linnabary v. Husted, 138 Ohio St.3d 535, 2014-Ohio-1417, 8 

N.E.3d 940, ¶ 40. “R.C. 3501.38(C) does not permit substantial compliance * * *.” 

State ex rel. Citizens for Responsible Taxation v. Scioto Cty. Bd. of Elections, 65 

Ohio St.3d 167, 169, 602 N.E.2d 615 (1992). The board does not dispute that R.C. 

3501.38(C) requires strict compliance. 

{¶ 32} Espen’s protest stated that the signatures of Kylor C. Kavahi, Cara 

C. Kalouris, Sarah C. Wilmore, Jacob L. Dyer, and Olivia K. Diehl are 

accompanied by addresses that do not match the addresses appearing on their voterregistration records. On their voter-registration forms, Kavahi, Kalouris, and 

Wilmore each listed their address as 1417 East Wooster Street. But when they 

signed the petition, which expressly asked for “VOTING RESIDENCE ADDRESS 

STREET AND NUMBER,” Kavahi wrote “1417 Harshman Bromfield,” and 

Kalouris and Wilmore wrote “1417 Bromfield.” Dyer’s voter-registration lists an 

address of 522 Thurstin Street, but on the petition Dyer wrote “GT09-03 Kappa 
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Sigma” as his address. Diehl’s voter registration lists an address of 311 North 

Mercer Road, but on the petition she listed simply “Kreischer Darrow” as her 

address. Facially, none of the addresses accompanying the challenged petition 

signatures match the corresponding addresses in the board’s voter-registration 

records. 

{¶ 33} Despite its acknowledgment that strict compliance with R.C. 

3501.38(C) is required, the board argues that this court has afforded boards of 

election discretion to validate a signature despite noncompliance with that statute. 

In re Protest Filed by Citizens for Merit Selection of Judges, Inc., 49 Ohio St.3d 

102, 103, 551 N.E.2d 150 (1990), presented the question “whether a board of 

elections may disqualify a signature on an initiative petition * * * where the 

residence indicated by a signer is not the same as the residence on record with the 

board of elections for said signer.” We answered that question in the affirmative. 

Id. at 106. 

{¶ 34} The board cites In re Protest for the proposition that it has discretion 

to determine whether to invalidate a signature based on a discrepancy between the 

address listed on the petition and the address listed on the signer’s voter registration. 

But In re Protest did not address whether disqualification by the board was 

mandatory or discretionary. There, the board of elections had rejected 9,100 

signatures because of discrepancies between the addresses on the petition and the 

addresses in the voter-registration records. With our holding, this court merely 

approved the board’s action. We were not required to determine whether the board 

would have had discretion to approve the challenged signatures, because it had 

already disqualified them. 

{¶ 35} In support of its validation of the challenged signatures, the board 

relies on Ohio Secretary of State Directive 2017-15 (Aug. 8, 2017), see Ohio 

Election Official Manual, Chapter 11, Section 1.05(C), found at 
January Term, 2017 

13 

https://www.sos.state.oh.us/globalassets/elections/directives/2017/dir2017-

15_eom_ch_11.pdf. It states: 

If an elector’s address given on the petition differs from that 

on file with the board, then the board must invalidate that signature 

unless the signer has provided the elector’s residence information in 

a format that is consistent with postal regulations as opposed to the 

political subdivision on file with the board of elections (e.g., writing 

“Columbus” as the city when the elector’s political subdivision is 

“Perry Township”). A board must not reject a signature solely based 

on this difference. 

(Emphasis sic.) Id. at 11-13 to 11-14. Immediately prior to that language, however, 

the same manual incorporates the first requirement of R.C. 3501.38(C), that “[t]he 

petition must contain the elector’s voting residence address, including the house 

number and street name or Rural Free Delivery (RFD) number, and the appropriate 

city, village, or township.” (Emphasis added.) Id. at 11-13. 

{¶ 36} The board contends that the challenged signatures fall within the 

Election Official Manual’s postal-regulation exception because the street addresses 

listed for the signers in the voter-registration records are the street addresses for the 

residence halls and/or fraternity houses that the signers identified as their addresses 

on the petition. Terry Burton, the deputy director of the board, testified at the 

protest hearing, “Our understanding is that those are equivalents in our system.” 

{¶ 37} The postal-regulation exception does not apply here. The exception 

directs a board of elections to overlook the difference between an address on a 

petition and the signer’s address on the voter register only if the address on the 

petition “is consistent with postal regulations as opposed to the political subdivision

on file with the board of elections (e.g., writing ‘Columbus’ as the city when the 
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14 

elector’s political subdivision is ‘Perry Township.’ ” (Emphasis added.) Id. at 11-

13 to 11-14. The exception excuses only differences between the city, village or 

township listed on the petition and the political subdivision listed on the votingregistration records. It does not excuse a difference between the street number and 

street name on the petition and the voter register, and it does not excuse a failure to 

list any street number or street name. Because the postal-regulation exception is 

inapplicable, the Election Official Manual required the board to invalidate the 

challenged signature. 

{¶ 38} Even if the board were able to determine that the information the 

signers provided on the petition identifies the same residences as the addresses 

listed in the board’s voting records, that equivalence does not cure the statutory 

defect. Both R.C. 3501.38(C) and the Election Official Manual require that a 

petition contain the elector’s voting-residence address, including the house number 

and street name. None of the challenged signatures were accompanied by an 

address that included both a street number and a valid street name. And nothing in 

the Election Official Manual suggests that a board of elections may validate a 

signature accompanied by a disparate address that does not comply with the statute 

in that regard. 

{¶ 39} In State ex rel. Citizens for Responsible Taxation, 65 Ohio St.3d at 

169, 602 N.E.2d 615, the board of elections rejected the signatures of petition 

signers who listed post-office boxes instead of voting-residence addresses even 

though the board had information from which it could have otherwise confirmed 

the signatures’ validity. Id. at 170. The board explained that the secretary of state 

had instructed it not to count signatures that provided only a post-office box as an 

address. Id. Citing R.C. 3501.11(P), which requires boards of elections to perform 

the duties prescribed by law or by the rules of the secretary of state, we held that 

the board had a duty to follow the secretary of state’s instruction, absent a showing 

that the order had no statutory basis. Id. at 170-171. Here, the Election Official 
January Term, 2017 

15 

Manual published by the secretary of state required the board to invalidate the five 

challenged signatures because the accompanying addresses on the petition differed 

from those on file with the board, and the postal-regulation exception did not apply. 

I therefore conclude that the board abused its discretion and acted in clear disregard 

of applicable legal principles in validating the challenged signatures. 

{¶ 40} Without the challenged signatures, the petition does not have the 

requisite number of valid signatures to be submitted to the ballot. I would therefore 

grant a writ of mandamus ordering the board to remove the proposed amendment 

from the November 2017 general-election ballot. 

 KENNEDY and DEWINE, JJ., concur in the foregoing opinion. 

_________________ 

McTigue & Colombo, L.L.C., Donald J. McTigue, J. Corey Colombo, 

Derek S. Clinger, and Ben F.C. Wallace, for relator. 

Paul A. Dobson, Wood County Prosecuting Attorney, and Linda F. Holmes 

and David T. Harold, Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys, for respondent. 

Terry J. Lodge, for intervening respondents. 

Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, L.L.P., and L. Bradfield Hughes, urging 

issuance of the writs for amici curiae, Affiliated Construction Trades Ohio 

Foundation, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and the American Petroleum 

Institute. 

_________________