The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is Keeping America First with Bishop jaun Te Coats and Reverend Jeff Jamison on FCB Faith. Welcome to Keeping America First, and on this exciting day in this midterm election primary season, we are so happy to have with us our great co host, Bishop John T. Coats, along with. Our special guests, none other than Judge Jill Lansinger of the Ninth District Court of Appeals. How are you, Jill, I'm great, Thank you for having me. Okay, we're gonna turn it over now, just a bishop coach and let him just kind of take a little bit more of the time in this interview. Well, Jill, is so good to talk to you on on today, Judge, and can you give us just just a little bit of biographical background as to who you are, how you came to be, and what inspired you to first run for elective office. Well, I'm Judge Jill Lansinger. I'm running for the Ohio Supreme Court. I've been a judge for over ten years in the state of Ohio, and I've been a judge at every level of the judiciary in Ohio. I was a municipal Court judge, a common police Court judge, and now an appellate judge. I'm originally from Northwest Ohio. I was born to a teen mom, a very good mom who is pro life, and my parents were factory workers. I met my husband in college and we moved to Northeast Ohio and we've been living here ever since. In Northeast Ohio. My husband is a Cleveland Clinic actor in general surgeon, and we raised our kids here in Northeast Ohio. And I came to run for public office because I've always been a person who cares about my community. I worked for a Republican judge when I was in law school and she encouraged me to run for office and showed me how to do that, and so I did run for judge, and it's been the best decision of my life. I get to do so much good in the court. I had a drug court program at one point. I get to resolve disputes for Ohioans and I enjoyed that very much. I get to care about constitutional rights and rule on those. Also, I've been a victim of crime over the last year, and I got to see the justice system from that angle, and I think I have a better understanding than some of the other people involved in the justice system of what that really feels like. I was so sorry to hear that you were victimized by crime. But how many years have you been a practicing attorney? So I've been licensed to practice for about twenty one years, and i was a trial judge for i was a trial attorney for over ten years and I've now been a judge for over ten years. Wow, and as a sitting judge, especially having risen through the ranks and serving in both the municipal as well as the common police courts. What has been your greatest surprise as it relates to, you know, being a judge. Well, the first one is how many people have substance problems that are involved in the justice system, whether it's alcoholism or drugs. The other thing I've seen is during sentencings. I get surprised by how many people express forgiveness in a sentencing. That's always surprised me when there's something very bad has happened. Also, what surprised me is how many people There are people who are willing to change and to do good things with their lives, and there are people who have to learn the hard way, and there's people that learn the easy way. But there are people who seem to never care about other people and will do criminal things no matter what kind of sentence you give them, and we just have to protect the public from those types of people. What has been your method of centering yourself, preparing yourself spiritually, psychologically, and putting that blindfold on with justice on one side and mercy on the other. What have you done in order to prepare yourself to walk into the courtroom every morning nine am and perform the same task day after day. I rely on God. I pray a lot in this profession. I also understand that past conduct is the greatest predictor of future conduct, and I have to remember that logical that's logic, the logic goal truth, and that even when I'm drolling out mercy, I have to also remember that I have to care about the protection of the public as well. Right now. To get through the selection, I listen to the Joel Ostein podcast every day. I don't think I could get through it. I don't know if you have ever listened to Joel Olstein, but he's he's very you know, put on the full armor of God, God has has great plans for you. He controls everything, and I really need to hear that every single day. Well, very goodness, and that that's really inspiring to hear. Now, you serve on the highest level cord on the county level, which is really an extension of the Ohio Supreme Court as a lower court. How how does it all interplay? How does the Court of Appeals, the Knife District Court of Appeals in which you serve, work in conjunction with the Ohio Supreme Court. Well, first of need to tell you that most people have contact with the trial court and so that's where what you see on TV where there's a trial, whether it's criminal or civil, and all the initial matters happen. Well, if you don't like what happened at the trial level, you think your constitutional rights were violated in some way, then you appeal to one of our appellate courts, and I'm in that first appeal level court. If you don't agree with the decision of the appellate court, then you appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. And the Ohio Supreme Court for most cases, decides what cases they want to take. There are times they have to take the case, like when there's a conflict. But the Ohio Supreme Court is the court that decides if action was constitutional, if the trial courts were wrong and the appellate courts were wrong. So our interplay is that we are the intermediate court between the two. We hear the first appeal. Also, the Ohio Supreme Court when they need a justice to stand in for another justice, when they get judge to stand in for another justice, like the justice has a conflict, they appoint the appellate court judges below to sit on those cases. So I've I've actually sat on the Ohio Supreme Court now four times because I get to fill in when the other justices are I get to fill in sometimes when they when the justices aren't available to sit, are there there's a conflict of some sort. But really it's the Ohio Supreme The importance of the Ohio Supreme Court is they are the final deciders of interpretation of our laws in the constitutional amendments in Ohio. Now, on the Ninth District Court of Appeals, you sit on panels with other judges. How how does that process work? Sure? So we three judges here a case and we read all we read the things you're supposed to read before the briefs, before the oral arguments, and then we all the three judge panel gets together and talks about the case and where we're leaning on the issues in the law. And then one judge is assigned to write the case, write the opinion, and judges. One judge could disagree and write their own opinion, or judges could uh collaborate with the original opinion that's going out. But it's basically three judges deciding the case and two two out of three judges makes the the opinion stand as a majority opinion. So there's lots of times if you see in my court where like where I've dissented or concurred and judgment only meaning that I don't agree with the other two judges, and the same things happened happens with all of us judges. So okay, well that's good guess, good practice for the larger. Panel exactly the seventh. So the court, the court, what's the role of the Ohio Supreme Court. It's the highest court in Ohio. It hears those final cases where the constitutionality of something has been challenged. It also hears the conflict cases where there's a conflict in the in the interpretation of the law by the other appellate court courts. It's required to hear those cases when there's a conflict. Uh They also hear what's called original actions. That's when the the like a habeas corpus. It's hard to explain to they have. If you're challenging like a public records issue, you can do that through a wrint getting a writ for the government to produce public records. So they hear a lot of those public records requests types of issues. They also have original jurisdiction over a election matters. So if there's an election dispute, an election dispute about somebody being on the ballot or some language on the ballot, they have original jurisdiction to have for those matters to be immediately appealed to the Uhiga Supreme Court. Right, Look, yes, the pastor Jameson. Judge, I've got to jump in and ask you this. You know you're in a very high spirited contested primary. Why should voters vote for Jill Lanzige. They should vote for me because I'm the most experienced Ohio judge in this race. You need somebody competent to handle this race and to go against an incumbent Democrat. I'm the judge with the most experienced as a judge in Ohio. I have over ten years. I've also served on the Ohio Supreme Court Court already. I've served at every level of the judiciary. I've proved with the track record that I'm a judge who thinks about matters very deeply, that I'm not afraid to think on my own, that i care about the constitution, I care about constitutional rights, I care about accountability, personal responsibility. But I've also mixed that with compassion and accountability by having a drug court. In the past two I started my own drug court and I presided over a mental health court. So I'm a person who is in the race because I desire to do good and to follow my oath of following the law and following and upholding the constitutional constitution and Ohio laws. Well, you know, Judge, Ohio's laws are constitutions. Our constitution, our state constitution is very easy to change. Is there any recourse in the Supreme courts system? Well, I remember there was a constitutional amendment proposed that changed the constitution to a ballot initiative to change it the constitution and make it a higher threshold like Florida has sixty percent. You have to have sixty percent of the vote to change the constitution. So I think that could be changed by vote, but it wasn't. You know, that didn't pass. I don't know that that challenge would have to come before me, and I couldn't decide it in advance. I don't know what the challenge would be about the fifty to fifty, you know, the fifty percent threshold. I'm just telling you that those Ohio constitutional amendments are still subject to the United States Constitution, so we will see constitutional United States constitutional challenges to the Ohio constitutional amendments, and. Voters can always go back to the polls and make another and make another change judgement. That's right. A couple of minutes, you have the floor. What would you like to say say to Ohio voters right now? I'm in a primary. I'm the right person for the job, so please vote for me. If you remember one thing from this interview, remember to vote judge Jill. I'm the only Jill running for the Ohio Supreme Court. I espouse the values of being a Christian I am a Christian and I am a personally pro life. I have to follow the law, but I'm personally pro life, and I hope to get your vote. Very good, And you have been endorsed. You're endorsed by Ohio Right to Life Pack, You're endorsed by the Ohio Right to Life Action Coalition, and you are endorsed by Ohio Life News as well. So listen, listen, voters, when you vote in this primary and in the general election, remember to vote down ballot. Yes is a governor's race. Yes, there's other Ohio constitutional offices that are running. But make sure you doubt you vote down ballad and that you vote for Judge Jill Langanzer. Look, we thank you so very much for your time, and we pray to God keeps blessing you with the ever increasing life of His understanding. And you have been listening to Keeping America First with our host, Pastor Jeffrey Jamison, and I'm Bishop John Coates. Thank you
