Ohio Supreme Court candidate found to have violated ethics rules after reposting endorsement calling her a judge — when she isn't

A Republican running to join the Ohio Supreme Court — and who has campaigned on her commitment to the rule of law — has been formally found to have violated Ohio’s judicial ethics rules just days before the May 5 primary.

A three-judge panel concluded that Colleen O’Donnell, a former Franklin County Common Pleas judge, breached two provisions of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct when she promoted an endorsement on Facebook that repeatedly described her as a sitting “Judge” — a title she has not held since January 2023.

The panel recommended no sanction, a recommendation Judge Robert A. Hendrickson, the administrative judge of Ohio’s Twelfth District Court of Appeals, accepted Tuesday in an entry closing the case, as posted by Bloomberg Law.

The endorsement at issue was issued by Ohio Value Voters, a Cleveland-based conservative advocacy group that publicly backed O’Donnell on January 14, 2026. The endorsement, which O’Donnell shared from her Facebook page, refers to her as “Judge O’Donnell” multiple times in describing her experience on the Franklin County bench and her subsequent work as a federal immigration judge in Laredo, Texas. John Stover, the group’s president, called O’Donnell “a proven constitutional conservative” in the announcement.

The grievance, filed March 20 and assigned case number 2026-06 by the Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association, alleges that by sharing the endorsement, O’Donnell violated Rule 4.3(A) of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct, which bars judicial candidates from knowingly distributing false information or doing so with reckless disregard for whether the information is false. The complaint also alleges a violation of Rule 4.3(D), which restricts how judicial candidates who do not currently hold judicial office may use the word “judge” in campaign materials.

The case took an unusual procedural turn before reaching this week’s resolution. After the review panel’s probable cause finding in March, the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct’s online docket briefly reflected the case as dismissed. A panel subsequently convened a hearing that produced the violation finding Hendrickson endorsed Tuesday, as posted by Bloomberg Law.

O’Donnell’s campaign website describes her as a “constitutional conservative” running to “preserve a conservative majority on the Court.” It states that during her time as an immigration judge, she “enforced the law as written, never once granted asylum, and consistently ordered the removal of illegal aliens from our country.” O’Donnell, the daughter of retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell, would join the court her father served on if she wins the November general election.

She is one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the seat held by Justice Jennifer Brunner, the court’s only remaining Democrat. Joining O’Donnell on the Republican primary ballot are Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals Judge Andrew King, Ohio Ninth District Court of Appeals Judge Jill Flagg Lanzinger, and Ohio Second District Court of Appeals Judge Ronald Lewis. The Ohio Republican Party did not endorse a candidate in the primary, according to reporting by the Dayton Daily News.

The winner of the May 5 primary will face Brunner in November in a race that could reshape the ideological balance of Ohio’s highest court, where Republicans currently hold six of seven seats.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on April 28, 2026 to add primary-source citations and additional candidate context.