Ohio Supreme Court slams Bob Cupp and Matt Huffman — yet again — for gerrymandering:

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court for a third time shot down Republicans’ state legislative maps, a move that will likely delay at least part of the May primary.

We’re talking about the decision, what it means and why it took so long on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here. See the automated transcript at the bottom of the post.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

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Here are the questions we’re answering today:

The Ohio Legislature was moving some months ago to create an unfair advantage in the funeral business, harming a lot of non-profits like cemeteries and churches. Is that effort over?

Cuyahoga County has a lot of American Relief Act money to spend, and now county executive Armond Budish and the county council have plans for spending some of it. What are they?

We talked Wednesday about whether a former Brecksville Councilman voted on a contract that gave him a personal benefit, something he was on trial for this week. It’s now official: he committed no crime. How did that come about?

Is the Cleveland Clinic finally going to open its $1 billion hospital in London? What are the details?

Has Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb definitely decided to bring in an outsider to be his police chief? What step is he taking to find his new chief?

The Cleveland International Film Festival has some controversy as it prepares to open up in Playhouse Square. How are the organizers upsetting the Playhouse Square projectionists?

How is JumpStart, which invests in startup companies in Northeast Ohio, jumpstarting its efforts to get even more entrepreneurs the resources they need?

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and it’s supposed to be a beautiful one, drawing throngs of people downtown for the first time in a very long time, but that also means security is a concern. With most of its bomb squad quitting, how is Cleveland preparing to deal with a potential bomb threat?

How hard is it to buy a boat two years into the pandemic?

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Read the automated transcript below:

Chris: [00:00:00] It’s a beautiful St. Patrick’s day in Cleveland. That’s a rare moment. We have the parade back after being gone for a couple years, big crowds coming, and I hope they enjoy it. There’s a new, I’m a Cron variant. That’s spreading through Europe that could very well start to come to the United States in a big way.

In a few weeks, the experts say so enjoying the masculine time downtown, you might have to put them back on soon. Lots to talk about today. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plain dealer. I am Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Layla Atassi, and Laura Johnston. Who’s wearing a leperchaun’s cap.

You just can’t see it.

Leila: Yeah. Laura G Laura, do you have a closet of, of a holiday? Had the

Chris: tire. No, she converted a bedroom into a storage for it all.

Laura: There’s a lot of holiday gear in my basement.

Chris: You know, that construction she’s doing at her house now, you know why? Right. Let’s get going. We got a [00:01:00] busy Thursday and we want to go down and see the parade from our windows for the last time.

What was the Ohio Supreme court’s reasoning. I think the third set of legislative maps very late last night after 10. O’clock not sure why it took all these weeks to do what seems pretty basic and simple.

Laura: Yeah, they just said the same, same reasoning as before that the Republicans on the redistricting commission did not follow the constitution, that they’re still gerrymandering in their own favor and they want it done.

Right. And they did put some more details on here about how it should be done. They wanted done in public. They want the entire seven member redistricting commission to hire one person that does this, rather than the Republicans hiring someone in the Democrats, putting their own maps up. And they, they want it done by March 28th.

So we got 11 days. Of course, this is going to throw that primary. I mean, there’s just no way they can have the primary May

Chris: 3rd. There was no way that could have it before [00:02:00] last night. That was never going to happen. Look. This morning when I got up, because I wanted to know, is there a sign as to why it took weeks and weeks to get to this decision and there’s not, but what it clearly does is say Bob cup and Matt Huffman have repeatedly violated the constitution and the orders of the Supreme court.

Mike DeWine, Keith Faber and Franklin are complicit because they’re not doing anything to stop it, but the over and over and over again, this decision says cop and Hoffman are three. Everything they’re supposed to do these two guys who we’ve pointed out are not elected statewide. They’re elected by tiny little districts are causing the constitutional crisis by refusing to do what they’re supposed to do.

And Mike DeWine should be ashamed of himself because he has the ability to take it away. He LaRose. And, and Faber could have said, you know what guys we’re done with you. You’re doing it in bad faith. There’s three of us. There’s two of [00:03:00] you go away. We’ll, we’ll get everybody together. We’ll run the redistricting commission.

We’ll bring the Democrats in. They didn’t do it. But the, the two guys who have caused this nightmare are coming.

Laura: I completely agree with you. I think it’s ridiculous that two guys from Lima are running, not just the state house, but the entire future of our state, because redistricting means everything for the next four to 10 years, depending on if they get buy in from the Democrats on who’s going to get elected.

And then what bills they’re even talking about in the legislature. So, I mean, The repercussions could not be greater for our state. And, and they’ve just rolled over that. The governor just says, okay, I

Chris: mean, they’re repeatedly violating the constitution. We’ve talked before that there are methods. They’re very hard to remove people from office for not doing their job.

One of the things, the Supreme court majority, the three Republicans put all their nonsense in dissents the gun man again, but. [00:04:00] One of the key points was that the constitution says that they shall draft together. The maps not approve together. The maps that the seven of them by the order of the constitution must work together to draft them and cup and Huffman have stopped them from.

Yeah.

Laura: And it says that they’re considering not just the letter of the law, but also the intent that the voters passed this with overwhelming majority that they wanted reform. They didn’t just want to tweak the rules. They wanted therapy.

Chris: So, yeah, they’ve got to move. And then after they’re in there’s three days for, for people to oppose them, then there’s three days for the, the commission to respond.

So we’re talking 17 more days before the Supreme court rules, unless, unless. The commission comes up with fair maps. There is a version it’s fair that they all approve, then we’re done. But if cup and Hoffman don’t change their dastardly ways, we’ve said from the beginning, they’re [00:05:00] the true villains of this story.

They should be run out of town on the way out.

Leila: And I was interested to see that Maureen O’Connor agreed with the Democrats about those toss up districts, because Chris, you kind of were leaning in the direction of, you know, they were, they were good enough. You know that. Yeah. But instead, I mean, they all said that the ruling said that, that those districts were, were designed to maximize the Republican advantage and, and you know, those narrow margins and those toss of districts were unfair.

And I was, I was really surprised to see that, but pleased that, that she is holding the line.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. She’s, she’s being a stickler. What I don’t get though, Layla. They knew that weeks ago when they looked at him, why did it take this long? It’s almost like they were forcing the issue of postponing the election because by waiting this long, there’s no doubt that they can, they can continue with the election.

[00:06:00] But, um, but yeah, look, I, I really appreciate we’re in O’Connor because what she’s doing, she knows that. That Sharon Kennedy, who is really demonstrating her complete partisanship. She actually gave a speech recently and she talked about…