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7 Ohio St. 3d 5

State ex rel. Cramer v. Brown

Ohio Supreme Court

Decided October 20, 1983

Ohio Supreme Court · decided 1983-10-20

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The supreme court shall have exclusive, original jurisdiction in all cases challenging the adoption or submission of a proposed constitutional amendment to the electors. No such case challenging the ballot language * * * shall be filed later than sixty-four days before the election.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including 76 Ohio St. 3d 643 - State ex rel. Ohio Roundtable, Inc. v. Taft

“It is well-settled that this court will not consider, in an action to strike an issue from the ballot, a claim that the proposed amendment would be unconstitutional if approved, such claim being premature.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Hessey v. Burden

Relies on 105 Ohio St. 535 - Schario v. State · 138 Ohio St. 497 - State, Ex Rel. v. Bigelow · 64 Ohio St. 2d 1 - State ex rel. Cappelletti v. Celebrezze

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1983-10-20

How this case has been cited

Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently February 2024

24 state decisions

10019831990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Per Curiam.

¶1The first two of relator’s challenges relate to the ballot language and explanation. Section 1, Article XVI of the Ohio Constitution, dealing with proposals initiated by the General Assembly, provides that “… [n]o such case challenging the ballot language, the explanation, or the actions or procedures of the general assembly in adopting and submitting a constitutional amendment shall be filed later than sixty-four days before the election.” The sixty-four day limitation was held to apply to initiatives proposed by the electorate as well in State, ex rel. Cappelletti, v. Celebrezze (1980), 64 Ohio St. 2d 1, 3 [8 O.O.3d 1],

¶2In this case, relator filed his action on October 6, 1983. The election is scheduled for November 8, 1983. Clearly, relator’s action herein is time barred for he did not file his action prior to sixty-four days before the election as required by Section 1, Article XVI of the Ohio Constitution.

¶3Similarly, we reject relator’s argument that the amendment proposed by Issue 3 would be unconstitutional if approved. It is well-settled that this court will not consider, in an action to strike an issue from the ballot, a claim that the proposed amendment would be unconstitutional if approved, such claim being premature. Pfeifer v. Graves (1913), 88 Ohio St. 473, paragraph five of the syllabus; Weinland v. Fulton (1918), 99 Ohio St. 10; Cincinnati v. Hillenbrand (1921), 103 Ohio St. 286, paragraph two of the syllabus; State, ex rel. Marcolin, v. Smith (1922), 105 Ohio St. 570; State, ex rel. Kittel, v. Bigelow (1941), 138 Ohio St. 497 [21 O.O. 380], paragraph one of the syllabus. Accordingly, the writ prayed for is denied.

¶4Writ denied.

Celebrezze, C.J., W. Brown, Sweeney, Locher, Holmes, C. Brown and J. P. Celebrezze, JJ., concur.
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