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Impeachment inquiry against Mike DeWine
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On August 24, 2020, Ohio state representative John Becker, a Republican, drew up ten articles of impeachment against Republican Governor Mike DeWine, alleging that DeWine's handling of the coronavirus pandemic violated Ohio's constitution and Ohioans' civil liberties. Several other Ohio House Republicans, including Nino Vitale, Candice Keller and Paul Zeltwanger, signed on as co-sponsors. The move was widely and immediately panned on both sides of the aisle and by legal scholars. calling the move “a baseless, feeble attempt at creating attention for themselves.” Ohio House Speaker, Republican Bob Cupp, called it an "imprudent attempt" to cause "a state constitutional crisis". Legal scholar Jonathan Entin said the proposal "means that we’ve distorted our understanding both of what impeachment is supposed to do and how people - especially, elected officials - are supposed to disagree with each other. Do we really want to say that the government can’t act in an emergency because the officials are afraid that if they do anything, they’ll be removed from office? Of course, if they don’t do anything, maybe the response is going to be ‘Well you should be impeached for not acting.' Background Mike DeWine was elected Governor of Ohio in the 2018 Ohio gubernatorial election, assuming office in January 2019. DeWine's Republican Party currently has a majority in the Ohio House of Representatives. The COVID-19 pandemic reached Ohio on March 9, 2020, at which time Governor DeWine instituted a state of emergency. DeWine's handling of the coronavirus pandemic had been widely praised. His handling of the coronavirus had sparked protests by citizens angry about stay-home orders and mask requirements. Accusations within the articles The articles accuse DeWine of implementing orders that violated the state constitution, including committing misfeasance and malfeasance, violating separation of powers in ways “tantamount to creating new laws", conspiring with Ohio Secretary of State Frank Rose to cancel the March election and illegally reschedule it, and violating Ohioans' civil liberties in ways that "promotes fear, turns neighbors against neighbors, and contracts the economy by making people fearful to leave their homes".<ref name":2" /> The articles also assert that "for the general population wearing face coverings, people are more likely to infect themselves with COVID-19." Health experts have called this "dangerous nonsense."<ref name"cleve" /><ref name=":2" />
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