Proposing to amend Section 6 of Article IV and to repeal Sections 19 and 22 of Article IV of the Constitution of the State of Ohio to change the age at and after which a person may not be elected or appointed to a judicial office and to eliminate the authority of the General Assembly to establish courts of conciliation and to reappoint a Supreme Court commission.

Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, three-fifths of the members elected to each house concurring herein, that there shall be submitted to the electors of the state, in the manner prescribed by law at the general election to be held on November 8, 2011, a proposal to amend Section 6 of Article IV of the Constitution of the State of Ohio to read as follows:

Section 6.  (A)(1) The chief justice and the justices of the supreme court shall be elected by the electors of the state at large, for terms of not less than six years.

(2) The judges of the courts of appeals shall be elected by the electors of their respective appellate districts, for terms of not less than six years.

(3) The judges of the courts of common pleas and the divisions thereof shall be elected by the electors of the counties, districts, or, as may be provided by law, other subdivisions, in which their respective courts are located, for terms of not less than six years, and each judge of a court of common pleas or division thereof shall reside during his term of office in the county, district, or subdivision in which his court is located.

(4) Terms of office of all judges shall begin on the days fixed by law, and laws shall be enacted to prescribe the times and mode of their election.

(B) The judges of the supreme court, courts of appeals, courts of common pleas, and divisions thereof, and of all courts of record established by law, shall, at stated times, receive, for their services such compensation as may be provided by law, which shall not be diminished during their term of office. The compensation of all judges of the supreme court, except that of the chief justice, shall be the same. The compensation of all judges of the courts of appeals shall be the same. Common pleas judges and judges of divisions thereof, and judges of all courts of record established by law shall receive such compensation as may be provided by law. Judges shall receive no fees or perquisites, nor hold any other office of profit or trust, under the authority of this state, or of the United States. All votes for any judge, for any elective office, except a judicial office, under the authority of this state, given by the general assembly, or the people shall be void.

(C) No person shall be elected or appointed to any judicial office if on or before the day when he shall assume date of the election or appointment at which the office and enter upon the discharge of its duties he is to be filled the person shall have attained exceeded the age of seventy seventy-five years. Any voluntarily retired judge, or any judge who is retired under this section, may be assigned with his the retired judge's consent, by the chief justice or acting chief justice of the supreme court, to active duty as a judge and while so serving shall receive the established compensation for such office, computed upon a per diem basis, in addition to any retirement benefits to which he the retired judge may be entitled. Laws may be passed providing retirement benefits for judges.

If adopted by a majority of the electors voting on this proposal, Section 6 of Article IV as amended by this proposal shall take effect immediately, and existing Section 6 and Sections 19 and 22 of Article IV of the Constitution of the State of Ohio shall be repealed effective immediately.

The amendments to Section 6 of Article IV of the Constitution of the State of Ohio in part substitute gender neutral for gender specific language. The gender neutralizing amendments are not intended to make a substantive change in the Ohio Constitution. The gender neutral language is to be construed as a restatement of, and substituted in a continuing way for, the corresponding gender specific language existing prior to adoption of the gender neutralizing amendments.