The "Predictable" Injustice of Right-Wing Courts
David Pepper at Pepperspectives (05.12.2025):
Every aspect of Kenneth Ray Jr.’s life was focused on keeping his community safe. Nearly every hour of his day, dedicated to others. The Akron native served as a police officer with the Creston (Ohio) Police Department. He served as a firefighter-EMT with the Uniontown Fire Department. And he served as a member of the security and fire team at the Faircrest Steel Mill in Perry Township, owned by Timken Steel. It was in that third role, where he’d worked for six months, that Ray lost his life in a matter of seconds. Ray’s duties at the steel mill included conducting safety checks and inspecting fire extinguishers. Unbeknownst to him, in a sealed elevator control room that he was tasked with inspecting, the cleaning system of an air-handling unit had malfunctioned, releasing lethal levels of compressed nitrogen gas (95% nitrogen vs. only 4.7% oxygen, when air with less than 19.5% oxygen is considered dangerous). On March 20, 2016, when Ray entered the control room and closed the door behind him, he “died of asphyxiation seconds after.” He was just 32. [...] Brace yourself: the Court ruled that the gas that killed Ray nearly instantaneously—specifically, the sky-high level of nitrogen which instantly starved his lungs and body of the oxygen Ray needed to live—was not toxic. You heard that right: gas that killed a man in mere seconds was…not toxic. (Sounds like the same logic as “boneless” chicken including bones, doesn’t it? No surprise, this is the same Court that reached that stunning conclusion as well).
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But Brunner makes one other point that takes us far beyond the tragic details of this case: “This court’s failure to follow the law undermines public confidence in the judiciary by creating an appearance of favoring employers over unprotected injured workers in the context of violations of specific safety requirements when more than one provision of the applicable regulations points to the conclusion that nitrogen is a toxic gas.” The attorney for Ray’s widow echoed this: “It’s disgusting the length the current Supreme Court will go to protect industry over people.” And here, we’re not just talking any business, but one as politically connected as it gets. It gives big money to Republicans. While chair of the Democratic Party here in Ohio, my counterpart was none other than Jane Timken.
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Then remind yourself of the decisions that keep coming as a result of business lobbyists putting their thumbs on the scale of justice:
a man dying in seconds from concentrated nitrogen, only to have his widow be told she loses her case because nitrogen is not toxic;
a man suffering lifelong injuries, nearly dying, from swallowing a chicken bone in chicken advertised as “boneless,” only to be told he loses his case against business because “boneless” is a cooking style and should not lead people to believe it means “without bones”
only a few years ago, this Court even applied tort caps to childhood victims of sexual abuse, as if their injuries were no different than the physical injuries of car accidents. Shamefully, business lobbyists would later file briefs in support of this outrageous and inhumane position.
When you hear the Chamber of Commerce say they want “predictable” and “stable” court rulings to enhance business and competitiveness in this state—and then they dump millions into these races—know that this is the type of decision they are seeking, and paying for. Decisions full of “legal somersaults and twists and turns” such that boneless chickens can include bones, and that “nitrogen is not a toxic gas even though it’s deadly.” Even in those worst case scenarios, everyday Ohioans still encounter injustice at the hands of the Court.
The Ohio Supreme Court handed a huge injustice to victims, as they deemed that the gas that ended up killing Kenneth Ray Jr. was NOT “toxic.”
