Ohio Ballot Board Unanimously Approves Amendment to End Qualified Immunity

Group can now move on to collecting the 413,488 signatures necessary to get their amendment on the ballot

COLUMBUS, OH, UNITED STATES, December 20, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Ohio Coalition To End Qualified Immunity (The OCEQI) is proud to announce that the Ohio Ballot Board has unanimously ruled that the proposed amendment to end qualified immunity may proceed as a single issue. With this critical milestone achieved, the coalition must now collect 413,488 valid petition signatures by July 2, 2025, to place the amendment on the November 2025 ballot.

The amendment aims to ensure accountability for constitutional violations by government actors while clarifying that only government employers—not individual government employees—will bear financial liability for damages. Major provisions of the amendment include:

-Accountability for Rights Violations: People can bring a civil (not criminal) case against the government when the government or one of its employees violates one or more of their rights secured under the Ohio Constitution.

-Elimination of Immunity Defenses: Qualified immunity, sovereign immunity, prosecutorial immunity, and all statutory immunities will no longer shield the government from accountability when it violates a person’s constitutional rights.

-Exclusive Financial Responsibility for Government Employers: If a government employee is found liable for violating constitutional rights, only their government employer (state or political subdivision) will be financially responsible for damages awarded to the victim. No government employee would pay a single penny in any case brought under this amendment.

-Resolving Institutional Issues: When someone wins a case against the government, a judge will order the government employer to take “...reasonable measures to prevent a similar rights violation from reoccurring.” This will, over time, correct the root causes that enable these rights violations, leading to a government that better respects Ohioans’ constitutional rights.

Full text of the proposed amendment: https://oceqi.org/amendment

Video recording of the Ohio Ballot Board hearing: https://ohiochannel.org/video/ohio-ballot-board-12-4-2024

Kyle Pierce
The Ohio Coalition To End Qualified Immunity
press@oceqi.org
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