Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine says he won't recuse himself from redistricting lawsuits

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine says he won’t recuse himself from redistricting lawsuits involving his father, Gov. Mike DeWine


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine says he doesn’t plan to recuse himself from hearing a trio of lawsuits challenging new state House and Senate districts that his father, Gov. Mike DeWine, voted to approve.

Justice DeWine has recused himself at times from lawsuits involving decisions made by his father, including as recently as last month, when, saying he wanted to “avoid the appearance of impropriety,” he decided to withdraw from a case challenging Gov. DeWine’s decision to end enhanced federal unemployment benefits. In May, he did the same on a case challenging Gov. DeWine’s coronavirus-related restrictions, citing his father’s “extensive personal involvement” on the issue.

But in the redistricting cases, Justice DeWine said his father was just one of seven members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which approved the maps.

“He has considerably less influence over the [commission] than he would over a [department] of state government,” Justice DeWine wrote in a text message. “Moreover, he is not [a] member of the legislature and the district lines do not affect him personally. As a consequence, there is no basis for me to recuse myself.”

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/open/2021/09/ohio-supreme-court-justice-pat-dewine-says-he-wont-recuse-himself-from-redistricting-lawsuits-involving-his-father-gov-mike-dewine.html