Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.

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Catching Our Eye

• Social media. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Karen Kasler reports, “Panel of federal judges upholds Ohio’s age verification law on social media, websites.”

A federal court in Cincinnati has upheld a 2024 state law requiring age verification on social media and websites for kids under 16, ending the order blocking the law. But the court battle over the law is likely to continue.

Three judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state, which said the age verification provision that was tucked into the budget signed in 2023 would protect kids’ mental health. The tech lobbying group NetChoice challenged on First Amendment grounds, claiming requiring ID to access lawful online material is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. The group also claimed the law is unconstitutionally vague.

• Midterms. WOSU’s Debbie Holmes reports, “More than half of Ohio’s Black voters not showing up at midterm elections, new report says.”

The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation has released a report on the state of Black civic power in Ohio. It’s the first county-level study of Black midterm non-voters in the state. One of the main findings is that more than 600,000 Black Ohioans did not vote in the last midterm elections in 2022.

• Data centers. Cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer reports, “Ohio shelves data center crackdown as lawmakers head into summer break.”

Ohio lawmakers have officially abandoned their push to fast-track new regulations on the state’s booming data center industry, as House leaders on Thursday canceled their last potential session day before heading into a months-long summer break.

The House’s decision to cancel next Wednesday’s “if-needed” session, announced Thursday, comes after lawmakers failed earlier this month to pass a data center regulation bill in time for the 2026 campaign season, amid disagreement over how far to scale back a controversial state tax break.

Neither the Ohio House nor the Ohio Senate is now scheduled to come back for sure until shortly after the Nov. 3 general election, when the legislature’s month-long “lame duck” session kicks off.