Ohio lawmakers move to keep their texts, emails secret from the public

June 27, 2025

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They can’t help themselves. This is an indication that they are scared. YOU are having an impact by questioning them, doing public records requests, and calling them out on social media! Now is the time to DOUBLE DOWN !

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Text messages and emails between state lawmakers and their staff would be exempted from public-records disclosure until the start of the next legislative session, under quiet, last-minute revisions made by legislators to the state’s enormous budget bill.

The changes, if passed, would be the most significant alterations to Ohio public-records law regarding the legislature in more than a quarter century.

Critics denounced the proposed changes, saying they would allow lawmakers to keep the inner workings of the lawmaking process secret from the public – including potentially embarrassing comments and revealing information about lobbyists’ influence on bills they introduce and vote on.

One public-records expert described it as “another nail in the coffin of self-governance.”

But one key lawmaker said the proposed new state limits would mirror federal public-records limits and argued that lawmakers need to be able to frankly discuss bills without fear that everything they type will end up being publicly scrutinized.

What would the changes do?

Right now, members of the public – including, most frequently, journalists, activist groups, and bloggers – can file Ohio public-records requests for lawmakers’ text messages, as well as emails to and from legislative email accounts.

The only major exemption to that in current law is correspondence between lawmakers and staff with the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission, the latter of whom draw up the exact wording of bills for lawmakers and provide analyses of legislation. Those restrictions were passed by lawmakers in 1999

This new budget proposal would expand that exemption to include any document or material prepared by a lawmaker and/or their staff for another lawmaker and/or staffer.

However, another proposed change would allow such documents to be considered public records after the end of the legislature’s two-year session. At that time, the public could obtain not just messages between lawmakers and/or aides, but between lawmakers and LSC staff, which right now are permanently exempt from public-records requests.

Ohio lawmakers and staff would still be allowed to voluntarily release emails, texts, and LSC correspondence at any time – they just wouldn’t be required to provide them in response to public-records requests until the legislative session ends. Draft bills and amendments also become public records when they are officially filed with the House or Senate clerks.

The budget language would still restrict the release of documents that are deemed “privileged” under the Ohio Constitution’s “speech and debate” clause. That clause generally protects state lawmakers from being arrested, deposed, or sued over statements made during session.

Public-records requests for emails and texts between state lawmakers have helped shed light on numerous Ohio Statehouse scandals over the years — such as how then-House Speaker Larry Householder pressured other lawmakers to pass House Bill 6, the 2019 energy law later found to be at the center of the largest bribery scandal in state history.

The system hasn’t always worked: the legislature denied public-records requests for text messages between Householder and a key ally, then-state Rep. Jay Edwards, as Edwards said he deleted the texts.

What do critics say?

Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Ohio chapter, said the proposed public-records alterations are “a horrible idea from the perspective of government transparency.”

“You’re talking about shutting off access to critically important information – or some information that might be less than that but still would provide very helpful information as to a legislator’s thinking, their actions, who it is that they’re talking to, actions that they’re taking in committee,” Daniels said. “Just, you know, the fundamental workings of the legislative process.”

If Gov. Mike DeWine doesn’t veto the changes, Daniels said, lawmakers could effectively prevent any email from being made public – such as messages to lobbyists or others they don’t want to be seen associating with — simply by cc’ing another lawmaker.

While making such messages available at the end of the legislative session is “somewhat positive,” he said, “the damage can already be done at that point” — the scandal might have passed from the public’s attention, or the lawmaker might have left office entirely.

Daniels said, regardless of the merits of the proposed changes, lawmakers should seek to pass them in a separate bill and hold public hearings on it.

Instead, a legislative conference committee, after days of closed-door negotiations, slipped the measures into the nearly 6,000-page budget bill at 1:30 a.m. last Wednesday, about 17 hours before the final legislative vote to send the enormous bill to DeWine’s desk.

David Marburger, an expert on Ohio sunshine law and a First Amendment lawyer who has represented The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com and other newspapers for years, called the budget proposals “another nail in the coffin of self-governance.

“Legislators are shielding from public view their communications with each other about proposed laws—as if they have a confidential relation with each other,” Marburger stated in an email. “What an impact just a few words makes.”

What do supporters say?

It’s not immediately clear who sought the proposed public-records changes nor what led to the changes to be added now by the Republican-led legislature.

House Finance Committee Chair Brian Stewart, a Pickaway County Republican and one of the six members of the budget conference committee, said the proposed changes reflect a need to update Ohio’s public-records law, which was written at a time when most lawmakers discussed bills face-to-face or over the phone, rather than emails or text messages.

Stewart said shielding such messages from immediate public view would allow for better legislation and debate among lawmakers, noting that the Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution behind closed doors for just such a reason.

He also pointed out that the federal Freedom of Information Act already includes similar exemptions for texts and emails sent between members of Congress.

“I think there’s been a long-running desire (among Ohio lawmakers) to have an ability to do your job without having 11 million people looking over your shoulder every time you send a text message,” said Stewart to a reporter, referring to the approximate population of Ohio. “You know, you wouldn’t do your job that way.”

The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com has reached out to spokespeople for Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, and Senate President Rob McColley, a Northwest Ohio Republican, for comment.

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney stated via text Friday that the governor’s office was still reviewing the budget and had no immediate comment on the proposed changes.