From The Columbus Dispatch An unlikely alliance of liberals and conservatives had no right to challenge the constitutionality of Gov. John Kasich’s JobsOhio, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The ruling handed down by five of seven court justices does not mean the creation of Kasich’s privatized economic development agency in 2011 was legal or illegal, only that liberal policy group ProgressOhio and two Democratic lawmakers didn’t have proper standing to raise that question in court when they first filed suit three years ago.
The conservative 1851 Center for Constitutional Law later joined the suit.
There was even less agreement on the high court over whether yesterday’s ruling would preclude anyone from ever getting an answer from the courts on the legality of JobsOhio. A law professor from Case Western Reserve University said there are some instances in which no one has the right to sue.
“On a more general level, beyond the specific question of JobsOhio, that’s the way the standing doctrine works in both state and federal courts — there may be some circumstances in which no one has standing,” said Jonathan Entin, constitutional-law professor at the Cleveland-based school.