Keeping it Brief

Federal

“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that states have broad powers to regulate powerful pharmacy middlemen without being preempted by federal law”.
- “The case was brought by the $400-billion-a-year industry, known as “pharmacy benefit managers,” against the state of Arkansas over a 2015 law that set a minimum, market-based rate the middlemen had to reimburse pharmacists for the drugs they dispensed”.
This ruling impacts independently owned pharmacies and levels the competition amongst big name pharmacies like CVS and OptumRx and independently owned pharmacies.

“The Supreme Court will hear a landmark antitrust case against the NCAA that could upend the business model for college sports by allowing colleges to compensate student athletes”.
- Appeals will be heard over a decision made in May which found that paying college athletes is a violation of antitrust law.
- The appeals will be heard in the spring before the end of the current court session.
In response to this case, there is a bill titled “College Athletes Bill of Rights” sitting in Congress which states that student athletes can be paid through “revenue-sharing agreements with athletic associations, conferences and schools that make money off college sports. The proposal also would allow athletes to pitch products or services for their own profit”.

State

State Rep. Stephanie Howse introduced HB 304 which would require “state contractors and those that receive “economic incentives” within the state obtain a certificate proving they pay all employees equally for jobs of the same qualifications and enact an evaluation system for public employers “to identify and eliminate sex-based wage disparities”. The bill is titled the Equal Pay Act.
- The bill would also prohibit employers from asking for a potential employee’s salary history and the discussion of wage rates.
This bill comes after the findings that Ohio is 31st in the U.S. for its gender wage gap and that women have to work until the age of 71 to earn what a man makes by the time he is 60. These numbers were found by the House Commerce and Labor Committee.

The Ohio House recently passed HB 501 which requires animal drawn vehicles to “display a flashing yellow light mounted on the top that is able to be seen from all sides. The vehicles would be required to also display a “slow-moving vehicle” emblem as well as new micro-prism reflective tape”.
- The bill passed the house with support from both republicans and democrats and will now be sent to the Ohio Senate.
The current law states that animal drawn vehicles must display either reflective tape or a sign that says “slow moving vehicle”, but according to lawmakers who represent Amish residents of Ohio the current law does not ensure total safety of people riding in the animal drawn carriage.

Ohio Senators passed a bill that “would prohibit a convicted murderer from being sentenced to death if they suffered from a serious mental illness at the time of the killing”.
- The bill passed 27-3. The bill will return to the Ohio House to approve a small change made by the Ohio Senate.
The mental illnesses a part of the bill are schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar and delusional disorder.

SB 383 passed the Ohio House which states that “a person has no “duty to retreat” before using lethal force if he or she “reasonably believed” the force was necessary to prevent death or injury”.
- The current Ohio law states that a person has no duty to retreat if they are in danger at home or in their car.
With the implementation of SB 383, courts cannot “consider the possibility of retreat in determining whether that person used force in self-defense” if a victim shoots someone for self-defense.
The Brady Center for Gun Violence published a study stating that about 30 Americans are killed monthly due to laws like SB 383.

SB 260 passed through the House Health Committee which bans the use of telemedicine in medication abortions. The bill is now going to the Ohio House for a vote.
- Abortion clinic officials explain that many lawmakers are ignoring previous statutes of by potentially passing this bill as Ohio law requires an in-person clinic visit before medication abortions can take place.

“A judge in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division ruled in favor of Stacie Ray, Basil Argento, Jane Doe, and Ashley Breda, saying an Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Office of Vital Statistics policy refusing transgender people the ability to change the gender stated on their birth certificate was unconstitutional”.
- The policy does not allow for one to change the sex marker on an Ohio birth certificate.

HB 310: Collin’s Law continues to be stalled in the Ohio Senate’s Education Committee. It is reported that the bill did not receive a vote due to time constraints.
This bill comes in reaction to the death of Collin Wiant, a freshman at Ohio University who died from a hazing incident at an unofficial fraternity’s house. The passage of the bill “would've expanded the definition of hazing in Ohio to include the forced consumption of drugs and alcohol. Most notably, the bill would've increased the criminal penalties for hazing, which in Ohio is now a fourth-degree misdemeanor, comparable to not paying a parking ticket. Under Collin's Law, that would've be raised to a second-degree misdemeanor for general hazing and a third-degree felony for any hazing involving drugs or alcohol”.

Further information on legislation being discussed during the lame duck session can be found here:

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2020/12/17/legislators-consider-guns-abortion-hb-6-repeal-and-health-department-powers-in-last-scheduled-sessions/

Guest UserDecember 19, 2020