Perfect time to showcase the Constitution of Ohio

Columbus Dispatch: As much talk as there has been in recent weeks and months about amending the Ohio Constitution, it is more than appropriate that citizens can now see original documents with their own eyes at the Ohio Statehouse Museum.

Ohioans actually can see two state constitutions. The first was written in 1802 and effective with statehood in 1803. The second was adopted in 1851 and remains the framework for state government.

Thanks to the leadership of the Capitol Square Foundation and its chairman, Charles R. Moses, our state Capitol is the first in the nation to become home to its founding documents.

En route to last week’s unveiling ceremony, the foundation worked for years to raise awareness and funding and to secure a working relationship with the Ohio History Connection (formerly the Ohio Historical Society), which had the documents in storage.

To protect and preserve them, the paper-and-ink documents are housed in special cases in a dimly lit room within the museum’s education center. Thousands of visitors, especially schoolchildren, visit the center annually.

“This is a working, living museum,” said Moses, foundation chairman for the past 15 years and president of the Ohio Telecom Association. He has worked tirelessly on behalf of civics education, including the 2009 opening of the Statehouse Museum and its continuous improvement.

ILLITERATE IN CIVICS

Sadly, national polls show only one-fourth of American adults can name all three branches of government. About half do not know their state has a constitution (all 50 do).

And 11 of the original 13 states had constitutions that preceded the 1787 adoption of the U.S. Constitution. “Virtually all of the foundational liberties that protect Americans originated in the state constitutions and to this day remain independently protected by them,” wrote Jeffrey S. Sutton of Bexley, a judge on the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals.

Sutton has lectured and written extensively on the importance of state constitutions and the need for law schools to do a better job teaching them.

After all, the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution delegates widespread powers to the states. State constitutions – not the federal one – control education; state executive power; judicial selection; state debt, finance and taxation limits; powers of local governments; term limits, and more.

The Ohio Constitution grants more power than most as one of only 14 states that empower citizens to change laws and amend the constitution with both a statutory initiative and a direct constitutional initiative. Ohioans also enjoy the power of the referendum to repeal laws.

These tools of direct democracy were adopted by Ohio voters in 1912. They were among 34 amendments approved of 42 proposed by a state constitutional convention.

This was at the height of the Progressive Era, when reformers in both major political parties rebelled against boss rule, machine politics and corporate control of elected officials.

Now to make it more difficult for citizens to initiate constitutional amendments, House Speaker Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, and Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, propose increasing the percentage of the vote required for adopting initiated amendments from the historical simple majority to 60 percent. For amendments proposed by the General Assembly, they would keep the passage threshold at a simple majority.

It’s always a good time for citizens to learn more about their state constitution. Today it’s especially important.