Ryan Haynie

Editorial: State’s anti-energy-discrimination law needs to be allowed to work

April 10, 2025 Jonathan Small Ryan Haynie Tulsa Beacon

In 2022, the Oklahoma Legislature passed the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act of 2022 which prohibits state entities from using investment firms who boycott the oil and gas industry. After litigation concerning the law, legislation is being considered that would result in revising the law in ways that would make it less effective. These proposed changes…

A new Supreme Court Justice is being selected Oklahomans deserve transparency

January 16, 2025 Ryan Haynie Tulsa Beacon

With all that’s going on in Washington, D.C. right now, it’s easy to forget how historic the November election was for Oklahomans. For the first time since the judicial system was reformed—or, better stated, deformed—in the 1960s, Oklahomans voted not to retain a sitting Oklahoma Supreme Court justice. The deadline to apply for that vacancy…

With Justice Kauger leaving what is next for the Oklahoma Supreme Court?

December 24, 2024 Ryan Haynie Tulsa Beacon

Last month, for the first time since retention ballots were introduced in the 1960s, Oklahoma voters chose not to retain a sitting Oklahoma Supreme Court justice. Here I’ll explain what has happened since the election and where the process is headed over the next few months. The Oklahoma Constitution dictates that Supreme Court justices sit…

Editorial: Despite its precedent, Oklahoma Supreme Court allows minimum-wage initiative to proceed

August 1, 2024 Ryan Haynie Tulsa Beacon

From an economic standpoint, the minimum wage is terrible public policy. It hurts those its advocates claim to be trying to help, creating unemployment by making certain employment agreements a crime. We would be better off without it, and we certainly should not vote to increase it. Those of us who understand what an economic…

Editorial: What is the Oklahoma Supreme Court doing?

June 8, 2023 Ryan Haynie Tulsa Beacon

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been busy. Busy striking down abortion laws passed by the Oklahoma legislature. This may strike some as odd. After all, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs that “Our Nation’s historical understanding of ordered liberty does not prevent the people’s elected representatives from deciding how abortion should be regulated.”…

Analysis: Abortion ruling shows need for reform

March 30, 2023 Ryan Haynie Tulsa Beacon

Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dropped a bombshell opinion wherein it found the Oklahoma Constitution protects the right to terminate a pregnancy to preserve the life of the mother. In the ultimate exercise of futility, it did so despite both statutes in question providing for that very exception. Rather than providing clarity on…