Central Ohio Today

Is a high-profile Northeast Ohio organization that claims it’s nonpartisan and fair living up to that claim? Judge for yourself.

The group called Judge4Yourself.com purports to be a non-partisan organization that rates Ohio supreme court justice candidates to benefit the voters. It says its mission is to help “voters elect good judges.” While this goal may sound worthy, Judge4Yourself.com was recently exposed for its dishonest legal doublespeak masking a hyper-partisan and condescending agenda.

The group’s co-chair C. Ellen Connolly was forced to resign in disgrace from her role after reports surfaced that she repeatedly posted vile social media comments that show a serious lack of judgment. Ms. Connolly’s posts featured repeated racist comments and insults directed at those whom she disagrees with politically. She also posted about her dream that the Republican presidential candidate be assassinated.

Connolly’s reply to a Cleveland newspaper when asked about these horrific comments? “I said what I said. I’m not ashamed. I’m moving on.” This outrageous response shows a lifelong Democratic operative who was masquerading as a non-partisan and independent source of judicial vetting. This is unacceptable. Racism is despicable and calling for political violence is even worse.

But the real problem comes from the fact that three weeks have gone by and none of the six affiliated bar associations that make up Judge4Yourself.com has condemned or said anything remotely critical about these contemptable comments. The Ohio Democratic Party and their three endorsed candidates for Supreme Court have also failed to denounce this divisive rhetoric.

Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics poll found that a mere 16% of Americans rate the legal profession’s honesty and ethics as “very high” or “high.” That’s a 6% drop since 2019’s previous all-time low. Want to know why that confidence in our legal system is plummeting? One reason is groups like this that claim to be offering an impartial public service while hiding a partisan and divisive agenda.

What’s crystal clear is that ideology has poisoned the judicial ratings process. What was once perhaps a service to voters is now just another partisan charade.

A favorite talking point among bar associations is the importance of improving civility within the legal profession. The implosion of Judge4Yourself.com proves beyond a reasonable doubt the judicial ratings game isn’t just broken, it is in fact — beyond civility.

Until bar associations make a commitment to transparency and systemic change, all judicial candidates should move on from participating in these charades. The only raters that matter are Ohio voters.

The profession needs to look in the mirror. And that work should start with the bar associations who can no longer be trusted to serve as fair arbiters of who serves on the bench. It’s time for the adults in Ohio’s legal circles to return to the table and face some unpleasant facts. Bar associations and supposedly neutral groups need to be out of the judicial ratings business until they get their house in order.

To ensure that Judge4Yourself.com is not further infected with rampant bias or hateful commentary, it must hire a neutral, outside investigator to examine not only the social media accounts of its members, but also the judicial ratings over the last several elections. This investigation should also extend to the ratings themselves to ensure that bias, whether political, racial, or otherwise, has not infected those ratings.

This fairness audit should include full disclosure of all funding of the organization – including pass through funding – and whether the funding is equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats. The audit should also highlight any dark money funding. The results of that investigation should be published for everyone to see.

Judges must be impartial. An organization that seeks to fairly rate candidates for judge must also be impartial. These recent hyper partisan and racist remarks show the need for such a fairness audit. Until and unless this audit is conducted and the results released, judicial candidates must refrain from participating in the Judge4Yourself.com process.

Is an organization that turns a blind eye to racist remarks and calls for political violence worthy of your trust? Judge for yourself.

Judge Megan Shanahan is a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge. She is the Republican nominee for Ohio Supreme Court Justice running against incumbent Democrat Justice Michael Donnelly.