"A Franklin County judge overturned Ohio lawmakers’ effort to eliminate a clean air enforcement rule that’s used against polluters. She said the legislation unconstitutionally spanned multiple subjects."
"A Franklin County judge blocked last week a state law that eliminated Ohioans’ special legal powers to sue polluting neighbors like steel or other industrial plants that spit smoke, ash or other fumes into the sky.
This marks the second time in a short few years that environmental interests have managed to squash, at least temporarily, an effort to kill the air nuisance rule, which has been on the books in Ohio for more than 50 years.
The ruling last week from Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch states that lawmakers’ directive to state officials to repeal the air nuisance rule, which was slipped into the state budget as an 11th hour amendment, violated a provision of the state constitution that says legislation can span only a single subject.
“The Air Pollution Amendment has nothing to do with appropriations or state operations. Therefore, it violates the Constitution’s one-subject rule,” she said. "
