Progress Ohio and Democratic State Sen. Michael Skindell and Rep. Dennis Murray filed lawsuits claiming Gov. John Kasich’s public-private entity JobsOhio was an unconstitutional corporation with minimal transparency. Two courts threw out their lawsuits, saying they didn’t have standing to sue. Now they want the Ohio Supreme Court to hear their arguments.

Brian Rothenberg is with Progress Ohio. 

“The public is not permitted to file a lawsuit against something potentially unconstitutional," Rothenberg says. "In my view, that leaves our Ohio constitution essentially defenseless.”

And they’re getting help from Maurice Thompson at the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a Tea Party-backed offshoot of the conservative think tank the Buckeye Institute. 

“These are just judges subjectively imposed their own personal preferences on deciding who can access court and who can’t," Thompson says. "And that’s dead wrong.”

Rothenberg and Thompson are also concerned that lack of standing was the same decision given when the lawsuit challenging electronic slot machines at horseracing tracks was thrown out in May.