William L. Phillis, executive director of the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy, a group of public schools suing the State of Ohio for more funding, told the newspaper "This is not something you expect in a democracy. You might expect this kind of behavior from a third-world dictator, one that would want to hide wrongdoing by making a decree that makes it right." Johnson told "The Dispatch" "I need unlimited, unfettered discretion to seek every fact I can find in order to come to a decent conclusion. What we want to do is make sure the senators and representatives are competently representing the will of the people." The senator also claimed seventeenth-century English common law justified his plan.