COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) -- A Franklin County, Ohio, common pleas court judge denied the motion of a special interest group to issue a temporary restraining order Tuesday against Ohio Attorney General Nancy Hardin Rogers.

The request was filed as part of a lawsuit initiated Monday by the REJECT HB 545 Committee, an organization seeking to overturn a new Ohio law severely limiting the ability of payday lenders to do business in the state. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner was named a co-defendant in the lawsuit.

A hearing on the committee's request for a permanent injunction should be scheduled soon.

According to William M. Todd, Of Counsel with the Columbus law firm of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff and the lawyer representing the payday lending industry, both Rogers and Brunner have failed to act promptly on proposed ballot language submitted by the Committee.

With every passing day Rogers does not issue a legal opinion as to whether the ballot language proposed by the REJECT HB 545 Committee is valid, their constitutional rights are being trampled upon, said Todd. The committee seeks to overturn all or part of a new Ohio law going into effect Sept. 1 that will lower the interest rate charged by payday lenders from an annualized 391 percent to 28 percent.

The lawsuit alleges that the Ohio statute allowing the state's top lawyer ten business days to study a proposed ballot referendum eats into the group's ability to gather the petition signatures needed to get the measure on the November ballot. State law prohibits them from seeking those signatures until the AG approves the proposed ballot language.

The REJECT HB 545 Committee originally had submitted 2,920 signatures along with a petition summary of their proposed ballot initiative to both Rogers and Brunner on June 10. Rogers denied the ballot language on June 19, saying it was not entirely truthful.

Since then, the committee has submitted two additional ballot proposals. Rogers is expected to release her opinion on the first resubmission by Thursday while the window on the second rewrite expires July 14.

The lawsuit challenges an Ohio law in effect since 1930 that empowers the state's AG to certify summary language -- explaining a ballot issue to voters. Ted Hart, a Rogers' spokesman, said attorneys general have been certifying ballot summaries for at least 30 years.

Hart said Tuesday's hearing before Judge Tim Horton occurred in his chambers, not in open court. He said two assistant attorneys general from the AG's Constitutional Law department argued that "Ohio law is constitutional and that section of the Ohio Revised Code [granting the AG the power to certify ballot language] is constitutional."

Despite Tuesday's setback, the REJECT HB Committee won't be deterred from getting the initiative on the November ballot, said Todd.

"We are disappointed," he acknowledged, adding that rarely does a trial court judge grant a temporary restraining order by labeling an Ohio law unconstitutional. However, "the facts here demonstrate why" the law is unconstitutional.

For a ballot initiative to get placed on the November ballot, Ohio law requires the accepted ballot language along with the signatures of 241,365 registered Ohio voters be submitted to Brunner's office no later than 90 days before the election.

In this instance, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland signed the law imposing wide sweeping changes on the state's payday lending industry on June 2, making it effective Sept. 1.

That brief window of opportunity to get their ballot language certified by the AG and then collect the required number of petition signatures denies Ohio voters the right to decide whether they want the payday lending industry to continue as it has in the state, said Todd.

"There should not be any laws that hamper the proceeding but the [actions of the Ohio] General Assembly significantly hampers the ability to meet the requirements for signatures," he said.

While the committee awaits Rogers's opinions, they are also weighing their legal options, said their lawyer.

"The petition process may have Federal constitutional considerations," said Todd, hinting the organization may take their fight to the federal level.

"The statute permits the Attorney General to personally block access to the ballot. The governor signed the law June 2 and today is July 8 and we still don't know what will be an acceptable summary."