Gov. Mike DeWine appoints ex-Treasurer Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court

COLUMBUS—Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday he has appointed former state treasurer and Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Deters, a 65-year-old Republican, will take the seat currently held by Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy, who was elected chief justice last month. He will be sworn in on Jan. 7. Judicial appointments do not need to be confirmed by the Ohio Senate.

“Joe Deters has the right combination of experience, legal knowledge and passion for public service that will serve the citizens of Ohio well as an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court,” DeWine said in a statement. “Joe is a long-serving and well-regarded public servant who is known for his legal intellect, reverence for the rule of law and his accessibility.”

Deters’ term will expire in 2024, after which he must run for a full six-year term in order to remain on the court.

In a statement, Deters said the appointment is the honor of a lifetime.

“I have spent my entire career standing up for victims and protecting the rights of criminal defendants,” Deters said. “I appreciate the trust and responsibility that comes with this appointment and look forward to working with my colleagues on the Supreme Court to ensure Ohio’s justice system protects the rights of all Ohioans.”

DeWine considered a handful of other choices for Kennedy’s seat, including Ben Flowers, the state solicitor general who works for Attorney General Dave Yost, and Megan Shanahan, a Hamilton County Common Pleas judge.

Deters has a reputation for being tough on crime. During a seven-year stretch as county prosecutor, he sought the death penalty 120 times. In 2018, shortly before Ohio executions were put on hold because of problems obtaining lethal-injection drugs, Deters told a reporter that death-penalty appeals “take too damn long” and suggested Ohio use firing squads for executions.

After earning a bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Cincinnati, Deters worked as an assistant prosecutor before he was elected Hamilton County clerk of courts in 1988. He then served as Hamilton County prosecutor for six years before he was elected state treasurer in 1998, then reelected in 2002.

Deters aimed to run for Ohio attorney general in 2006, but that dream ended after three of his associates – including his ex-chief of staff Matt Borges, who was arrested in 2020 for his alleged role in the House Bill 6 bribery scandal – pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges related to steering state business to Deters campaign donors. Deters himself was never charged as part of the scandal and has denied any wrongdoing.

Deters resigned in the middle of his second term as treasurer to successfully run for Hamilton County prosecutor again. He has since been reelected four times, most recently in 2020.

The appointment of Deters to the court means that Republicans will keep a 4-3 majority on the Ohio Supreme Court even after the retirement of the current chief justice, Republican Maureen O’Connor.

O’Connor was loudly criticized by Republicans after she joined the court’s three Democrats in repeatedly striking down GOP-authored redistricting maps last year. Deters, along with the rest of the court, will likely have to revisit the issue of redistricting when state lawmakers and the Ohio Redistricting Commission pass new maps for the 2024 election, though the court is expected to be far friendlier to GOP lawmakers after O’Connor’s departure.

In the coming months, the court will likely also hear a challenge to Ohio’s new six-week abortion limits, which are currently on hold as they’re being heard in lower courts.