Trina Prufer: What is Lawfare?

From Trina Kay Prufer

August 23, 2025

STRS is a malevolent financial institution, backed by the Ohio Legislature, that systematically strips teachers of financial security, power and dignity. It will never work for teachers as the “law“ can be exploited by those who have the influence to do so.

What is Lawfare?

Lawfare is a fairly recent term describing a legal action undertaken as a hostile campaign against a country or group. It is the misuse of the law to achieve an objective.

When the history of STRS is written, lawfare will be seen as the core process that stole wealth from members and hid STRS mismanagement, conflicts of interest and grift.

It started with relatively “small” acts of misappropriation (international travel, use of cars, giveaway cafe, etc..) that were rationalized away by the ORSC… and grew into a perversion of the very legal system embodied by the Ohio Constitution.

Below are just a few examples:

For teachers, a contract is not a contract. The retirement savings of a lifetime could be diminished by the stroke of a pen. All the legislature had to do was declare the defined-benefit COLA obligation “unsustainable“, thereby using its police powers to erase the financial obligation owed to teachers (SB 342). The meaning of the word “VESTED” was obliterated.

Adding insult to injury, the true meaning of the “reform” legislation was hidden from teachers in the ORC and STRS documents. Teachers were blatantly deceived, as FULL DISCLOSURE, was conveniently omitted from the statute. Teachers were misled into believing the COLA had been reduced to 2%, when the underlying funding model did not include this provision. By not defining “financial integrity“, any and every COLA could be interpreted by STRS as harming the “financial integrity” of the system.

Perhaps one of the most blatant uses of lawfare is the AGs harassment of Steen and Fichtenbaum, accusing them of dereliction of their fiduciary responsibilities, when nothing could be further from the truth. The AG and STRS attorneys knew full well they were exaggerating a difference of opinion in how STRS funds should be invested, using this false narrative to gain full State control of the fund.

And now, the misuse of the law has exploded the Ohio Constitution. For teachers, laws can be written that are not only misleading, but “passed” without any of the checks and balances essential to the process. What makes this newly configured STRS board LEGITIMATE, if their authority comes from an ILLEGITIMATE process?

STRS is a malevolent financial institution, backed by the Ohio Legislature, that systematically strips teachers of financial security, power and dignity. It will never work for teachers as the “law“ can be exploited by those who have the influence to do so. The value in understanding the term “lawfare” is that it sheds light on how and why this has happened.