Top 10 Reasons to Donate to the 1851 Center . . . this Year!

This holiday season, as you’re besieged by end of the year fundraising emails, don’t overlook Ohio’s only charity that consistently defends your constitutional rights and limits government.

Here are a few reasons to make room in your budget to contribute to liberty in Ohio before the end of the year:

Donate to 1851

  1. With our help, you really can fight city hall, at no cost. Our clients pay nothing, due to the generous support of people like you. The cost of having to pay a lawyer is the very reason many unjust government actions are never challenged, while many victims of government abuse simply cannot afford to fight back.
  1. We defend Ohio taxpayers from government. This year, we forced one Ohio school district to return $5.5 million in illegal property taxes to its taxpayers.
  1. We defend your property rights. This year, we stopped Ohio cities from using a form of eminent domain abuse called “quick-take” to immediately seize Ohioans’ land without a trial or even a hearing. We also stopped private pipeline corporations from doing the exact same thing.
  1. We defend your parental rights. This year, we stopped judges and government medical “experts” from overruling fit parent’s health care decisions for their children.
  1. We defend your freedom to criticize politicians. This year, we protected the rights of a Maple Heights husband and wife to criticize the failed policies of their mayor on their blog, after the Mayor sued them demanding “an amount in excess of $25,000” for “defamation” and “emotional distress.” And now we’re taking that Mayor and his lawyer to court to make them pay for their frivolous litigation.
  1. We defend your right to do business. This year, we stopped Ohio cities from intruding into rental properties without a warrant, while levying extortionate fees and fines on Ohio’s landlords.
  1. We defend you from career politicians. This year, after Ohio legislators hatched a plan to use an under-the-radar commission to get rid of their own term limits, we stopped them. And we’ll stop them next year too.
  1. When public officials violate your constitutional rights, we make them pay. This year, we won a ruling forcing Ohio’s Secretary of State personally compensate Cincinnati pension reformers after he unconstitutionally forbid them from contracting with out-of-staters to collect signatures for their ballot issue.
  1. We have big plans for 2016. We have big plans to better protect you from local tax increases and union abuses. We’re going to continue using the Fourth Amendment to protect your property, business, and contract rights. And we’ll continue to stop eminent domain abuse.
  1. Your contributions actually make a difference. In 2015, support from people like you made all of our work possible. As opposed to a huge national or global non-profit, we focus intensely on Ohio, and do it on a shoestring budget. So every dollar matters. Donations directly fund our cases and actions, not endless chatter, swanky offices, or bloated salaries. As little as $1,000 sometimes covers the expenses for an entire case.

And precisely because we are supported by individuals like you, we can’t be bought by special interests, big corporations, labor unions or politicians. Our work will never deviate from our mission: achieving your freedom from government force. We are the only “special interest group” representing Ohioans who oppose special interests.

With your help, we are a force for long-lasting change, rather than a tactic to win the next election.

If you’ve already donated this year, thank you for making our work possible.

If not, help us continue to serve you with your support 

If your donation is dated before December 31, you’ll be able to take a tax deduction on this year’s taxes. Otherwise, please consider funding freedom a first priority of the New Year.

Together, we can preserve and restore your liberties, and make Ohio more free.

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Checks (made payable to the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law) can be mailed to:
208 E. State St. Columbus, OH 43215

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Should Public Officials Be Held Liable for Violating Ohioans’ Rights?

Court considers whether Secretary of State Jon Husted should be required to compensate Ohioans whose First Amendment rights he violated

Cincinnati, OH – On Thursday, December 10, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on whether government officials must reimburse the victims of their unconstitutional conduct for the costs and expenses imposed by that conduct.

In late 2013, federal judge Michael Watson sided with the 1851 Center in Citizens in Charge v. Husted, determining that a “residency requirement” reenacted through Senate Bill 47 violated Ohioans’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting them from working with out-of-state petition circulators on their initiative. Thereafter, the Ohio Attorney General insisted that the Secretary of State Husted was nevertheless “immune” from damages for the harm he imposed on a conservative pension reform effort in Cincinnati.

In March, Judge Watson denied the plea for immunity, explaining that Mr. Husted may indeed be liable for the harm he inflicted because the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights were “clearly established,” and any reasonable public official would have known that the residency requirement was unconstitutional (the same requirement had been held invalid in 2008).

The Attorney General appealed, even though Mr. Husted does not deny that he violated Ohioans’ rights. Instead he claims that, as a government official, he should be absolutely immune from personal liability when enforcing statutes enacted by the legislature, irrespective of their constitutionality.

The parties filed briefs, and on December 10, the 1851 Center argued that government officers should be personally liable, rather than “immune,” when they violate Ohioans’ clear constitutional rights.

“Public officials should be held accountable for the harm they inflict when violating Ohioans’ rights, not their innocent victims,” according to Maurice Thompson, Executive Director of the 1851 Center. “If public officials from the governor down through the police know that they will be liable for enforcing an unconstitutional law, they are far more likely to take Ohioans’ constitutional rights seriously. We would like to end the ‘I don’t make the law; I just enforce it’ mentality that many public officials use to escape liability for the harm they cause.”

If the State prevails in its appeal, public officials – whether police, bureaucrats, or politicians – may well be authorized to violate Ohioans’ rights without consequence.

Capital elections law professor Mark Brown is supporting the 1851 Center’s position with an amicus brief, while Ohio State elections law professor Daniel P. Tokaji has called denial of immunity here “dead-on right,” explaining “[s]ome qualified-immunity cases are difficult. Not this one.”

The oral argument occurred at 9:30am on Thursday December 10. You can listen to the archived oral argument HERE

Read the 1851 Center’s Appellate Brief HERE

Read media reports on this case HERE