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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > April > 05 > Entry
Editorial: Moyer brought integrity back to top court
Tom Moyer spent 24 years in a job that can have incredible power and influence.
Yet most people wouldn’t know his name even during one of the election years he was on the ballot, when hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent to elect him chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Such is the nature of judicial elections in Ohio. Obscene amounts of money are raised to elect seemingly anonymous people to a seven-member court that literally has the power of life and death over people charged with crimes and that can — with the swipe of four people’s pens — cost or save businesses and even individuals millions.
Mr. Moyer, who died suddenly Friday, April 2, didn’t aspire to his job because he wanted a public profile. Rather, he first ran for the court in 1986 because the then-chief justice, Democrat Frank Celebrezze, was a political partisan and out of control.
The impression was widespread that Mr. Celebrezze, who died last month, was using the disciplinary system to punish critics, while unions and his favored interests were getting preferential treatment.
When Mr. Moyer, a Republican, was drafted to run, it was an unlikely pairing. Here was a gentlemanly, cerebral court of appeals judge signing up to take on a street fighter. Newspapers’ editorial boards relentlessly lambasted Chief Justice Celebrezze and even Democratic lawyers backed the GOP candidate.
Mr. Moyer won, though it was a big Democratic year. Two years later, Mr. Celebrezze’s brother, who also was on the court, was ousted in another raucous election.
In the two decades since then, Chief Justice Moyer has restored the court’s dignity. It’s all-Republican today, but there’s no aura of the spiteful partisanship that once predominated.
Plenty of people disagree with the justices’ unmistakable conservative bents, but the difference is that the court is widely viewed as having integrity and being an honest broker of the law.
Probably the most liberal or activist decision Chief Moyer made was ultimately switching his vote and ruling that Ohio had not created a constitutional school funding method. It was a decision he did not take likely.
A chief justice has no real special power; he, in the end, has just one vote. But the person in this job can set the tone of the court and its priorities, and he can parlay his influence by creating committees to push for change. Other lawyers can be enlisted to advocate for causes, and a chief can make speeches promoting or objecting to things.
Chief Moyer used his bully pulpit to modernize Ohio’s courts employing technology; he backed using mediators instead of judges as a way to reduce conflict and save litigants money; he insisted on raising standards for judges, pushing for their continuing education; he believed in standardizing policies to rein in shoot-from-the-hip judges.
A critic of judicial elections, Chief Moyer believed that jurists should be appointed and then have to be elected to keep their jobs. This crusade — always controversial with the political parities — was one he was continuing to work on in this, his last year in office. (He couldn’t run for re-election because of the constitutional prohibition against judges being elected after they turn 70.)
The last time Chief Moyer ran, he toyed with the idea of refusing all campaign contributions — as a statement about how corrupt the system had become. But he gave up on the idea because he was persuaded that, notwithstanding his long tenure and accomplishments, he really could lose — political advertising being so necessary to elect judges.
Chief Justice Moyer’s contributions are many, but the most enduring is his example. Future chiefs and justices can’t ever say they don’t have a role model.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Ohio government, Ohio politics
Comments
By parental
April 6, 2010 7:12 AM | Link to this
Justice Moyer was a good man. A loss for Ohio. Very nice DDN.
By William B. Wheeler
April 6, 2010 11:54 AM | Link to this
On behalf of our 1550 Judge, Magistrate, Attorney, Legal Administrator, Paralegal and Law Student Members, the Dayton Bar Association wishes to express its sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer. His legacy of leadership will be missed by all.
By TRS
April 6, 2010 12:42 PM | Link to this
Nice editorial DDN - Justice Moyer was a man of integrity and honor.
By TDS, Esq.
April 7, 2010 12:55 AM | Link to this
The Chief was wonderful to watch in oral arguments & his opinions were always well-reasoned, even those that I did not agree with. I understand that his decorum in running the Court was unassailable. He served law, justice, and the Ohio people well, and he will be missed.
By TDS, Esq.
April 7, 2010 12:57 AM | Link to this
The Chief was wonderful to watch in oral arguments & his opinions were always well-reasoned, even those that I did not agree with. I understand that his decorum in running the Court was unassailable. He served law, justice, and the Ohio people well, and he will be missed.
By dhampton100
April 9, 2010 12:35 PM | Link to this
As a Democrat who never voted for Judge Moyer and didn’t agree with any of his decisions, my sympathies go out to his family and those who did love him. It is always sad when a person leaves this life and grief follows. Unlike most Republicans I refuse to be happy when any person dies and their loved ones hurt.