By Kathy Wray Coleman, Associate Publisher, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

COLUMBUS, Ohio-A federal district court judge on Friday overturned as unconstitutional what Civil Rights leaders and prominent Black elected officials of Ohio have branded a racist state law enacted by the Republican controlled Ohio State Legislature last year that bans early voting three days before the November 6 presidential election day, a victory for Democrats of the pivotal state of Ohio, and the Obama for America campaign, which brought the lawsuit against Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (pictured).

Data compiled by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections show that in 2008 when Barack Obama (pictured), then a junior senator from Illinois, was elected president of the United States of America, roughly 59 percent of voters in Cuyahoga County that voted during the three days leading up to the election were Black.

And at that time Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, was Ohio's secretary of state.

Cuyahoga County, which includes the largely Black city of Cleveland,  is Ohio's largest county, and is about 30 percent Black.

Filed by the Obama campaign with the defendant named as Husted, who won election in 2010 pursuant to a Republican sweep of statewide offices including the governorship won by former Ohio congressman John Kasich, the lawsuit alleges that the state law is unconstitutional not necessarily because it targets Blacks in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but because it bans all but military voting on the 3 days at issue, and that the military provision creates an inequitable criterion.

Federal District Court Judge Peter Economus of the Southern District Court of Ohio in Youngstown said in an order issued Friday that the state law, which bans voting on November 3, 4 and 5 and allows it on election day on November 6, is unconstitutional on its face, setting the stage, according to Republican Ohio Attorney General Michael DeWine, for an appeal of the judge's celebrated ruling to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The Obama campaign quickly issued a press statement in response to the unprecedented ruling by Economus in The Obama for America Campaign vs. Husted.

"We are pleased the court agreed to restore equal and fair access to early voting," said Obama for America-Ohio Senior Adviser Aaron Pickrell in a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com."Now, as a result of this ruling, all Ohio voters, including active military, veterans, firefighters, police and countless citizens can cast their ballots over the weekend before the November 6 presidential election."

U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-11), a Warrensville Hts. Democrat and licensed attorney who is Ohio's only Black congressperson, had denounced the controversial state law as unconstitutional too.

She said that she is elated by the judge's ruling not only for her constituents of the largely Black 11th congressional district, which includes Cleveland and its eastern suburbs, but for Ohioans that were disenfranchised by Republican efforts to silence the Democratic vote.

"I welcome the court decision to restore voting rights to the people of Ohio," said Fudge, through Brinda Prinz, her communications director. "The judge in this case has reinforced a cherished principal of our nation, equal treatment under the law. He rightfully found the state law allowing only military voters to cast ballots the the final three days prior to election day unconstitutional."

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U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-11), a Warrensville Hts. Democrat and licensed attorney who is Ohio's only Black congressperson had denounced the controversial state law as unconstitutional too.

She said that she is elated by the judge's ruling not only for her constituents of the largely Black 11th congressional district, which includes Cleveland and its eastern suburbs, but for Ohioans that were disenfranchised by Republican efforts to silence the Democratic vote.