UC Law to host program highlighting redistricting, access to voting

On Jan. 1, 2011, Maureen O'Connor became Ohio's first female Chief Justice. She initially joined the Supreme Court on Jan. 1, 2003, becoming the 148th Justice and giving the Court its first- ever female majority. Maureen O’Connor is the tenth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, the first woman to lead the state judicial branch of government, a Cleveland State School of Law graduate, and a member of the Cleveland State Law School Hall of Fame.

Chief Justice O’Connor is the recipient of numerous awards from local bar associations to statewide and national organizations. Among them is Ohio State Bar’s highest honor, The Ohio Bar Medal, for ‘unusually meritorious service to the legal profession, the community and humanity.’  She is the longest-serving statewide elected woman in Ohio history.

Chief Justice O’Connor has led significant reforms and improvements in the Ohio judicial system and is a leader nationally. Her commitment to modernization of the courts across the state is unmatched. Since 2015, she has endowed Ohio local courts with almost $40 million to add and enhance technology. This funding has increased access to justice for litigants, defendants, and the public. The foresight of providing funds to local courts for technology made Ohio a leader in its ability to continue to administer justice through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Chief Justice O’Connor has worked to improve fairness in the judicial system. She was selected by her peers in the Conference of Chief Justices to co-chair the National Task Force on Fines, Fees, and Bail Practices in 2016. The Task Force issued a report that provides judges, lawyers, and court personnel guidance in the law related to fines, fees, and bail as well as best practices. In Ohio, she has advocated for reform to ensure people are not held in jail prior to resolution of their case simply because they cannot afford bail. She strongly advocated for the creation of a statewide criminal sentencing database and the implementation of a uniform sentencing entry to establish standardized data for felony sentencing. She created a task force on conviction integrity to look at policies and practices to determine equity, fairness, and advise the judiciary and the legislature.

Chief Justice O’Connor joined the Court in January 2003, was re-elected as an associate justice in 2008 and elected twice as Chief Justice in 2010 and 2016. She was unopposed for reelection as chief justice in 2016.

Since her retirement in December of 2022, she has been a leader for the effort in Ohio to amend the Ohio Constitution to create a redistricting commission with members selected from the citizens of our state. There will be no politicians or lobbyists eligible for appointment to the commission. The goal is to end gerrymandering and establish fair districts for both the Ohio Legislature and our congressional districts. The amendment will be on the ballot in November 2024.

Chief Justice O’Connor is also one of six members of the Advisory Group of Experts to Ukraine working on vetting candidates for the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU). She has visited Kyiv, Lviv, and Warsaw in order to fulfill the responsibilities of the task. The Advisory Group is active, committed, and producing groundbreaking results all aimed to increase fairness and trust in the CCU.  Democracies cannot survive without fair and independent judiciaries.  Given the threats to Ukraine by the Russian aggression, it is essential that Ukrainian democracy not only survives but thrives.

Kayla S. Griffin, Esq. is All Voting is Local’s Ohio State Director. With a background in community organizing, she advocates for voter rights and election protection across the state of Ohio. She leads year-round voter engagement and advocacy in order to ensure barriers to the ballots are minimized in our electoral process.

Griffin is the president of the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP and was an inaugural Fellow in the NAACP’s NextGen Fellowship. In addition, she was an inaugural Fellow in the Cleveland Leadership Center’s Carl Stokes Civic Leadership Institute, which addressed critical political and economic problems facing the City of Cleveland. She has sat on numerous boards, chaired various committees, and taught as an adjunct professor. 

A native of Youngstown, OH she holds a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University, a master’s degree from Cleveland State University, and a juris doctor degree from Cleveland State University College of Law. 

Lead photo: istockphoto.com; O'Connor: provide; Griffin: provided