O’Neill: Legislators should remove him from court
Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill should have stepped down from the bench when he announced he was running for governor. But he did not. Instead, he continued campaigning, expressing opinions on various issues.
We Americans have a tradition of discouraging such behavior, simply because it lessens faith in the judiciary’s impartiality.
Now, some state legislators are pushing to remove O’Neill from the high court.
O’Neill plans to resign anyway on Jan. 26 — he appears to have taken cues from the hyperbolic trends in national campaigning rhetoric, and has promised a “Douglas MacArthur-level farewell address” when he does. That may prompt some to wonder why lawmakers are bothering.
O’Neill himself seems to be taking great pleasure in the consternation he is causing, calling the effort to remove him from the bench purely political.
In fact, he gleefully proclaimed, “They don’t want me to be the governor, so this is their parting shot, and I welcome it. My platform got great exposure yesterday.”
But O’Neill is wrong, and lawmakers must not let the snark deter them.
There is a much greater reason to continue the effort to remove him from the bench: To send a message to any other judges or justices who may view O’Neill as a model to get away with violating the judicial code of conduct.
Legislators should keep their removal campaign alive until O’Neill leaves the court.