State attorneys defend Ohio’s plan to fund Browns stadium, urge court to dismiss challenge

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Attorneys representing several Ohio officials, including Republican state Treasurer Robert Sprague, want a judge to dismiss the class action lawsuit challenging the use of unclaimed funds to pay for a new Cleveland Browns stadium.

In a pair of filings, they reject the lawsuit as a “misguided challenge” and the plaintiffs’ objections as “conspiratorial ramblings.”

Far from coming up with some novel workaround to take ordinary Ohioans’ money, “the law is both mundane and entirely within the state’s prerogative,” the state’s attorneys argue. “The state’s right to manage, dispose of, and take title to abandoned property has been established for hundreds of years.”

If the plaintiffs are so worried about the state taking their property, one filing repeatedly asks, why don’t