BUT U.S. SUPREME COURT CASE NULLIFIES
by Sharon Rondeau, h/t LA and CS
(Jan. 26, 2015) — The constitution of the state of Ohio, while not easy to locate on the internet from a government source, is posted in full on the website of the Ohio Secretary of State.
Article V, Section 8 of the Ohio constitution reads:
TERM LIMITS FOR U.S. SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.
§8 No person shall hold the office of United States Senator from Ohio for a period longer that two successive terms of six years. No person shall hold the office of United States Representative from Ohio for a period longer than four successive terms of two years. Terms shall be considered successive unless separated by a period of four or more years. Only terms beginning on or after January 1, 1993 shall be considered in determining an individual’s eligibility to hold office. (1992)
Rep. and current Speaker of the House John Boehner was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990. Members of the House serve two-year terms in accordance with Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
The sole requirements for members of the U.S. House in the Constitution are:
No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.
Boehner’s biography states that in November 2012, he was elected to serve a 12th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. In November 2014, he was again re-elected for what would be his current 13th consecutive term. or 12th consecutive term following the passage of the amendment.
Boehner is not the only U.S. congressman to have served more than four consecutive terms in the House. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who represents Ohio’s Ninth District, has been serving since 1983, although the terms from 1983 to 1992 would not apply since the amendment did not take effect until January 1, 1993.
Also in 1992, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on state legislators and members of the state executive branch of government.
The Ohio constitution includes clear notations indicating that sections have been repealed and the date of their repeal (pp. 35, 41, 99).
On Monday, The Post & Email left a message with Ohio Secretary of State John Husted’s press secretary asking about how the constitutional amendment meshes with Ohio’s U.S. House delegation, some of whom appear to have exceeded the amendment’s term limit.
We also spoke with an aide for Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Pro Tempore Ron Amstutz and an aide for Ohio Senator Bill Coley, who chairs the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, posing the same question.
On Monday afternoon, we left a message with Rep. John Boehner’s Washington, DC office asking if he were aware of the amendment.
Before the close of business on Monday, Ohio Secretary of State spokesman Matt McClellan returned our phone call and provided an explanation as to why Boehner and other current U.S. representatives have served more than four consecutive terms given the passage of the amendment.
McClellan explained that a 1995 case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779, determined that states do not have the ability to place term limits or any other requirements on members of Congress besides those present in Article I of the U.S. Constitution. While the case originated in Arkansas, the decision applies to all states.
As did the Ohio constitutional amendment, Arkansas constitutional Amendment #73 took effect on January 1, 1993 (pp. 138-139.) It also placed term limits on state legislators and executive branch positions.
A member of the Arkansas League of Women Voters challenged section 3 of the amendment as “unconstitutional and void” as a “ballot access” provision. The Circuit Court and Arkansas Supreme Court agreed, after which then-Arkansas Attorney General Winston Bryant appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the amendment, claiming that the state possessed the authority to impose term limits on federal representatives via the Tenth Amendment to the Bill of Rights.
The high court found that imposing term limits on U.S. representatives and senators equated to additional requirements not set forth in the U.S. Constitution, citing that “an impressive number of courts have determined that States lack the authority to add qualifications.”
The Post & Email was unable to find articles about the 1992 Ohio amendment, although a discussion of its outcome from 2006 indicated knowledge of the issue by some.
In 1996, in recognition of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. Term Limits, Amendment 76 to the Arkansas constitution was added entitled, “The Congressional Term Limits Amendment of 1996 (Const. Amend. 73, § 3, amended)” stating that “all of our elected officials should vote to enact, by amendment to the United States Constitution, term limits for members of the United States Congress…”
Amendment 76 also formally “made application” to Congress to call a constitutional convention in order to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
While Ohio in 1992 voted on a proposal to call a constitutional convention, it was defeated.
Congress and the executive branch only enforce the laws that protect THEM!
Good paychecks are hard to come by.
The problem with passing laws is the failure to include enforcement provisions.
I wonder what would happen if I decided to open carry an AR-15 down the street in Des Moines? Since there are state laws saying Boehner is not eligible and it has been determined unconstitutional, so is infringing on on the second. I wonder how far one could get considering the same logic?