Justice Pat DeWine speaks to Ohio Northern University law students on the role of a justice at Tilton Hall on Tuesday morning.
Jessica Orozco | The Lima News
ADA — About 45 Ohio Northern University students and faculty and members of the public listened as Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine shared his thoughts on what the role of a justice is and how constitutions should be interpreted at the university Tuesday morning.
The talk was sponsored by the university’s chapter of The Federalist Society. DeWine, who has served on the state’s Supreme Court for about five years, said he believes the judicial system should play no part in making laws, but rather interpreting them.
“I take very seriously the separation of powers that we have both in our federal constitution but also within the Ohio Constitution,” DeWine said. “As I see it, our role is to be very careful not to be policymakers, not to let our own personal feelings about what we think the law should be, get in the way of doing what our constitutional role is.”
DeWine, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s son, said in order to make decisions on the court, he interprets documents, like the constitution, in a way that he believes people of the time they were published would have understood them. However, he said the writers of both the Ohio and United States Constitutions made processes by which justices can add amendments as needed.
The danger of allowing U.S. Supreme Court Justices to amend the Constitution, DeWine said, is that they are unelected, and so may decide changes based on their own opinions, rather than to better represent the country. Ohio Justices are elected, and therefore can better represent the state.
But DeWine also lauded the benefit of amendments to the federal Constitution like the 14th, which abolished slavery, in creating more equality in the country.
DeWine is running against Democratic Candidate Judge Marilyn Zayas, a judge on Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals, at the Nov. 8 election. He has served on the state’s supreme court since 2017, with his term set to expire on Jan. 1 if he loses his re-election bid.
DeWine served four years on the First District Court of Appeals before being elected to the supreme court, according to a press release. He served four years on the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court before that, and worked at various law firms in the Hamilton and Cincinnati areas.
DeWine is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law, teaching Appellate Practice and Procedure.
DeWine implored ONU law students to clerk for judges like he did in law school to gain real world legal experience.
“I think you really get a lot out of that experience,” DeWine said. “I think it’s something that whatever you do after that, it brings value to a law practice or kind of whatever you do in law.”
Reach Jessica Orozco at 567-242-0398, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @JessicaCOrozco.
