Just a over month after filing, the city of Toledo has dropped its appeal of a federal judge’s decision to invalidate the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.
In February, federal Judge Jack Zouhary ruled the bill, also known as LEBOR, invalid and sided with Drewes Farms Partnerships and the state of Ohio, in a civil lawsuit.
The city appealed the decisions, filing with the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit March 27.
Then, in a May 5 filing, the city asked for a dismissal of its appeal, which the court granted.
LEBOR
In February, 2019, Toledoans voted in LEBOR in an effort to protect the lake from polluters, following a three-day period in 2014 when the city water was unsafe to drink due to pollution.
The bill allowed Toledo citizens to sue polluters on behalf of the lake and declared that Lake Erie had a right to exist, flourish and naturally evolve. It sparked international conversations about rights of nature.
Lawsuit
The day after the bill passed, Drewes Farms Partnership, of Wood County, brought a lawsuit against the city of Toledo. The suit said the bill was unconstitutional and put the farm at risk. The state of Ohio later joined the suit, both parties asking the court to invalidate the bill.
Zouhary ruled in favor of the farm and the state, saying his decision to invalidate LEBOR was “not even a close call.” Zouhary said the bill was unconstitutionally vague and exceeded Toledo’s power as a municipal government.
The city appealed the decision in March, then dropped the appeal in early May.
Appeal dropped
The attorney representing the city of Toledo did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Thomas Fusonie, of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, which represented Drewes Farms in the case, said, in an email to Farm and Dairy that the appeal would have only caused more legal fees to be incurred, and that the firm was pleased to see Toledo drop the appeal.
Members of Toledoans for Safe Water, a nonprofit organized to create and pass LEBOR, criticized the city’s decision to drop the appeal in a May 11 statement, calling it “unacceptable” and “short-sighted from a public health and safety perspective.”
The group noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted other protections for Lake Erie, between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s March 26 decision to suspend enforcement of U.S. environmental laws and the likely budget cuts for the H2Ohio plan.
The Ohio Farm Bureau, which publicly supported Drewes Farms in the lawsuit, was glad to see the dismissal, calling it the “end of the road for LEBOR” in a May 8 post.
“We were certainly pleased with Judge Zouhary’s opinion, which stated what we knew all along: LEBOR was invalid and unworkable,” said Leah Curtis, policy counsel for the bureau.
