COLUMBUS, Ohio—A new Ohio law change allowing the Cleveland Browns to skirt the state’s “Art Modell Law” if they move to a new stadium in suburban Brook Park is in force as of Monday.

However, courtroom arguments continue about whether it was passed too late for the Browns to take advantage of it.

The new law, one of dozens of amendments slipped into the state’s new budget plan at 1:30 a.m. the day it passed the legislature, seeks to short-circuit a 1996 state law blocking professional sports teams from leaving taxpayer-supported stadiums unless city officials OK the move or team owners give locals a chance to buy the team.

Those original restrictions were passed soon after Art Modell, the owner of a previous iteration of the Browns, abruptly moved the team to Baltimore, devastating

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