Ep. 70 - Guest: Judge John Eklund

Guest: Judge John Eklund

Episode Transcript

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The following is a presentation of FCBFaith. This is the Jeffrey and Nick
Show. Welcome to the jeff Glorieand Nick Show. And we are a

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talk show that is very informative andwe're full focused on finding solutions to today's
issues and problems and making our communities, our nation, our country a much
better place. We're happy to havewith us an exciting guest today, one
who is gonna help tell us justwhat his job entails and why he should

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be re elected. We have anappellate court judge John Ecklin. Judge John
Ecklin of the eleventh District Circuit Court. Judge, Welcome to our show,
John Ecklund. Thank you so verymuch. I'm pleased to be here and

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thank you for everything you do toserve our community. Oh, thank you,
judge. Can you tell us howdid you become judge? How did
you get to the events where youare right now? Well, the longest
short of it is I served forten years as an Ohio State Senator representing
the eighteenth district, which was LakeCounty, Geoga County, and Portage County.

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And in that capacity I worked veryclosely over the years with initially Attorney
General Mike Dwine and then towards theend of my terms, Governor Mike Dwine
on many many issues, and weworked very closely together. When I came
to the end of my Senate careerbecause of term limitations, there was a

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vacancy on the Court of Appeals inthe eleventh District, and the Governor and
his folks approached me late in mySenate term to see if I was interested
in being appointed to fill that positionas a judge when I left the Senate.
Now, all during this time Iwas still a practicing lawyer in Cleveland

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with Kalfie Halter and Griswold, andI had anticipated going back to doing that
full time and once I got outof the Senate. But the Governor's folks
were very shall we say, persistentand persuasive, and I think it was
largely as a result of the personalrelationship I had developed with the Governor over

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time and his ability to see mein action for ten years as the chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, theCriminal Justice Committee, and some of the
other initiatives I was involved in.That he was very familiar with my capabilities
and my abilities, and so atthe end of the day. The short

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and long of it is, Iaccepted that appointment in June of twenty twenty
one. I was took the benchin July of twenty twenty one, July
one, and then because of theOhio Constitution, I was filling an unexpired
term, so I had to runin the next general election to finish that

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term, which I did in twentytwenty two, and I won, and
that term now expires, so I'mstanding for a re election to a full
six year term this year. That'skind of the reader's digest version, if
you know what I mean. JudgeJohn Ecklin, do you feel that your

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time in the Senate pretty much preparedyou for your time to serve on this
Court of Appeals Love District. That'sa great question, and I think in
more ways than one, the answeris yes. Okay. So much of
what court appellate court judges do isinterpret the laws and try to understand what

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they mean, and so often appellatejudges are looking for, well, what
was the legislative intent? Okay?I happen to think that in many respects
because of my experience in the legislature, I know what a frustrating and frankly
at times futile effort. That iswhy because in the legislature there are ninety

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nine and thirty three is one hundredand thirty two legislators voting on legislation.
And if you can figure out whatall one hundred and thirty two of those
folks were thinking when they passed aparticular bill, you have a crystal ball
that I don't own, all right, So it's kind of you have to

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appreciate that when you're looking for legislativeintent, to delve into it is sometimes
not very productive, which is whyI have a greater appreciation than most for
the need of an appellate judge tojust look at the words. You can't

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tell what was in the minds ofone hundred and thirty two legislators and a
governor who signed the bill. Toget the intent, you have to go
by what was written on the page. That's number one. Number two.
I think because I know what thelegislative process was about, and I have
a deep appreciation for what the judicialprocess is about. I know there's a

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difference between the two legislators are advocatingfor a particular position. They're advocating for
policy. They're making policy. Judgesdon't do that, at least in my
mind they should not, but ratherthey should be applying the law, making
sure the law is constitutional, makingsure that nobody's overstepped their bounds in passing

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the law. But once it's passedby the will of the people through their
legislators, we apply it as bestas we can understand it. And knowing
that distinction and everybody has their lanes, if you know what I mean,
in which to operate, is acritically important part of the fabric of our
constitutional system. And I think thathaving experience in both the legislative and a

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judicial branch goes a long way towardsmaintaining that constitutional framework within which we all
thankfully operate in this country. Yes, and that's so important. I'm glad
you touched on that. We justsaw that, and you know, we
see in so many cases where there'sthe attempt uh to to overturn you know,

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constitutional law laws. Right, that'sjust right there, and I think
in this day of activism, wehave to be careful to make sure that
our judiciary system simply interprets the lawas it is written, as opposed to
taking it upon themselves to be activistsand change law or make law from the

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bench. We talk about the Courtof Appeals in the eleventh District. What
areas do you represent? We wehave appellate jurisdiction in five counties, Astabula,
Lake, Geoga, Portage, andTrumbull Counties, the five northeastern most

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counties of the district. It's essentiallythe same size as the as the congressional
district that currently David Joyce represents inour United States Congress. It's about seven
hundred and fifty thousand people. Andwe hear appeals from every court in all

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five of those counties, from yourmunicipal court, your judges court, the
courts of common pleas, the probate, juvenile, domestic relations courts, the
whole ball of whack. So weget quite a quite a corniocopia of cases

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on different legal issues, different legalcontexts, and we have the primary appellate
jurisdiction on those cases. We hearsome original what they call original actions as
well. We have jurisdiction over somespecial writs that some parties seek from time

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to time. But the bulk ofour work is appellet work, and we
are in most instances, and itjust happens to be this way. We
are oftentimes the last stop on people'ssearch for justice because the Supreme Court of

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Ohio, which is the next step, they have what we call discretionary jurisdiction.
They don't have to hear every casethat is appealed to them, but
we have to hear every appeal thatis appealed to us. And the next

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stop is the Supreme Court, butthey don't have to take everything that comes
their way. So it's a big, big responsibility for a lot of great
Ohioans. Judge John Ecklin, we'veheard nothing but good things about you,
and we know that you've done agreat job as a legislature and as a
judge. Do you have in Europefor re election? Do you have an

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opponent, any opposition in this toyour reelection? I have an opponent in
the primary which is scheduled to beheld. Well, it's being held now
and the final election day is Marchnineteenth. Yes, so it's so important
to get this information out. Haveyou been endorsed by any or reviewed by

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any organizations. I've been reviewed byvarious bar associations in the district. I
don't know whether they've made their pronouncementspublic or not. And I hesitate to
say what they might say, butI've been endorsed by the Lake County Republican

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Party and by the Astabula Republican Partyso far as I know, they are
the only county parties that have endorseda candidate in this primary race at this
point. But the most important iportantthing, as you know better than most
probably is that the most important endorsementis the one that comes on the evening

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of March nineteenth. And I wouldsay this to you as well if I
may. You know, it's veryimportant to me to include in my message
the fact that to voters in particular, please vote in the judicial elections.

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You know, there's sometimes a littlefarther down the ballot than others, and
when you're in a primary season,it's sometimes hard for people to you know,
dig in and get a little furtherdown the ballot. But I would
encourage all of your listeners to pleaseinvestigate and make found choices and vote in

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the judicial elect actions all the waydown to your municipal court judges, because
it does make a difference to avery important function of government. Yes,
it does how about you know,the issues of safety and justice. Are
you one that really stands for that? Yes, of course. I mean,

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the safety of our citizens and ultimatelyjustice are the critical functions of government.
I mean, why did we havea declaration of independence? Right?
Because the colonists sought justice and libertyright and their safety, safety from the

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government and safety from the bad guys. Okay, But and there's no equivocating
on that. But what we alsoneed to remember is the function of a
of an appellate judge, of anyjudge, first and four most is to
make sure that justice and safety areattained consistent with the procedures and the protections

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afforded to everybody under our constitution.Okay, And yeah, you wouldn't sacrifice
the people's safety or justice over somethingminor like the First Amendment, or would
you? No? The First Amendmentcomes first, the Fifth Amendment comes first,

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the Fourth Amendment, protection against unreasonablesearches and seizures comes first. It's
justice within the bounds of the law, within the within the protections that are
blessed system of government provides us.And that's primarily where the appellate judge does

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their work. And that's what Itry to do what you say is correc
but within the bounds of our system, which we're pledged to protect and uphold.
Thank you so much, Judge JohnEckland. We wish you the best.
How can people find out more aboutyou or someone may be willing to

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assist you. How can they findout about your campaign? How to reach
you, how to help Judge JohnEcklund. Dot com is a good place
to go. I'll take a bigchance here. Okay, they can also
call me on my cell phone.I'm going to give you my cell phone
number four four zero eight six seventhree eight six zero. I'm happy to

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talk to any citizen who has questionsor wonders about the importance of what we're
doing or how we're trying to goabout it. Thank you so much to
our guest, John Eckland. JudgeJohn Ecklund of the Court of Appeals,
eleventh District. We're so happy tohave him here today. He's done an

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excellent job telling us what he does, why he should be re elected,
and informing our audience. Wanna thankyou for being with us. Our greatest
producer on this side of heaven,Darby Omorrow, Thank you again, and
let's all remember to keep fighting thegood fight. Let's remember to keep making

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our communities better, our cities,our villages, towns, townships, and
this state and nation a better placeto live. Keep doing your part and
keep fighting a good fight. Thankyou all, hey, God bless you.
God bless you too, and thankyou again for everything you guys do.

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