Ohio finally ratifies 14th Amendment

[zakur]

Recently a group of Ohio law students discovered that Ohio was the only state that hadn't either ratified or expressed support for the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Our state legislators decided to rectify the situation by finally voting to ratify the amendment

It was supposed to be merely a symbolic vote - but some conservative republicans balked:

Equal-protection issue ratified after long, bitter fight

But several conservative Republicans initially balked at approving the amendment without attaching some kind of complaint that federal judges have used it to erode states' rights on issues such as abortion and prayer in schools.

"When federal judges use the Fourteenth Amendment to violate the states' rights, that's unfortunate," said Rep. Tim Grendell, a Chester Township Republican. "The problem is people are more intimidated by politics than the reality."

The conservatives dropped their demands after several heated closed-door meetings among House Republicans. State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., a Cincinnati Republican, was the only one to vote against the amendment.

State Rep. James Trakas, an Independence Republican, said he argued to approve the amendment without any complaints. The theme of his argument: "Don't embarrass yourselves."

Too late, said several Democrats.

"It's an embarrassment to the state that we haven't fixed this problem until now," said Sen. Mark Mallory, the Cincinnati Democrat who sponsored the resolution. "I guess Grendell is leading the effort to make Ohio a national embarrassment."