"Florida Legislators Take On a Voter Right"
See this
New York Times article
on a proposal in the Florida legislature to submit to the voters a
proposed constitutional amendment to limit Florida voters' chance to
further amend their constitution.
As I recall from some research I did for a conference on initiatives
(held at USD last June---papers out soon in The Journal of
Contemporary Legal Issues), there appear to be no instances of the
people ever voting to give up the power of initiative once given to
them.
One of the most interesting aspects of today's newspaper article is the
statement: "The proposal in the House would put the question to a vote
in the general election in November, but the Senate version would do so
in the August primary elections, when the state's many independent
voters could not weigh in."
Could it really be that state law could exclude independent voters from
voting on this question? If so, state law would seem to be clearly
unconstitutional. Perhaps the newspaper story is wrong.
--
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org