Ohio

Justices

• Chief Justice Thomas Moyer – Term expires 2010 (R)

• Justice Paul Pfeifer – Term expires 2011 (R)

• Justice Evelyn Stratton – Re-elected 2008, term expires 2014 (R)

• Justice Maureen O’Connor – Re-elected 2008, term expires 2014 (R)

• Justice Terrence O’Donnell – Term expires 2010 (R)

• Justice Judith Lanziger – Term expires 2010 (R)

• Justice Robert Cupp –Term expires 2013 (R)

About the court

The Ohio court is partisan with a Republican majority, in that all seven justices are Republicans.

Justices are elected to 6-year terms and the elections are staggered over three cycles. The next election cycle is 2010.

Financial support from the business community, as well as support from the U.S. and Ohio Chambers of Commerce, have kept Republicans on the bench. Millions have been spent by these special interests in judicial races with the goal of effecting tort reform, while the court has repeatedly shot down the state legislature’s attempts at enacting tort reform.

Newly re-elected Justice Stratton, the most moderate Republican on the bench, has been cited in the New York Times as being the most objective jurist in the high court when it comes to hearing cases involving her campaign donors. For that reason she was viewed as the more vulnerable of the two justices up for re-election in the last cycle.