Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Irony

 The Queen caught everyone by surprise when she sued to stop Initiative 65 Monday. Her petition claimed the Secretary of State improperly certified Initiative 65 when he ignored the Mississippi Constitution's requirement that each congressional district can only contribute 20% of the required signatures for an initiative.  Mississippi practically defines irony and this case is no exception.  The same Secretary of State who is forced to defend this lawsuit filed a Senate resolution in 2015 to correct the very problem the complaint addresses. 

The Mississippi Constitution provides quite specific rules on gathering signatures for initiatives in Article XV, Section 273: 

The signatures of the qualified electors from any congressional district  shall not exceed one-fifth (1/5) of the total number of signatures required to qualify an  initiative petition for placement upon the ballot.

Mississippi lost a congressional seat after the 2000 census but the Legislature never fixed the language in the Mississippi Constitution.  Mayor Hawkins-Butler and Madison argue it is numerically impossible to meet the requirements of  Section 273 as 4 districts x 20% = 80%.

Mr. Watson said at a press conference yesterday the question was one for the Court to decide.  He said as he understood it, his predecessor followed an AG opinion on this very issue (The AG did so in 2009.  It will be addressed in a later post by tomorrow.).   

The former State Senator understood there might be a problem with Section 273 because  he introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution #549 in 2015.  #549 attempted to square Section 273 with the reduced number of congressional districts but the bill died in committee.  

The resolution would have changed the requirement from 1/5 to a "pro-rata share."  It was one of seven bills filed since 2000 that would change the 1/5 requirement. The most recent one was filed just this year.  

This is going to be rather interesting.  Stay tuned. 


43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the MS Supreme Court will hold and televise the hearing/oral arguments and not just rule based on filed briefs.

Tilting At Unicorns said...

If the required number is obtained and each district has at least an equal percentage (total number divided by current number of district), what damned difference could it possibly make if the total exceeds a magical number?

Just another example of a camel being a horse designed by the legislature.

Anonymous said...

I had a law school professor who liked to quote the maxims of equity. My favorite was "The law does not require a vain and foolish thing". The Mayor's suggested interpretation of the law which results in every petition being disqualified seems to me a vain and foolish thing.

Kingfish said...

Only two petitions passed. If you read the complaint, they are attacking 65 before certification of the vote (Steffey blew that one last night on WAPT) while those two were certified.

Anonymous said...

Legislators failed to act on medical marijuana and failed to correct an obvious problem in our laws. Now tell me again why we don't have term limits? Taxpayers get to pay the legal bills and probably the legislature gets what they want in no 65.

Anonymous said...

“Irony” - what’s that mean?

-Republicans

Anonymous said...

The legislature fucks up yet again...

Anonymous said...

1053, you seem to miss the point of the complaint. The poorly written law does not account for the change in the number of districts, as all the other laws that deal with congressional districts.

And, its the Courts job to read and interpret the law, not rewrite it or fix it - and that is an absolute standard when the law as written is clear.

The fact that the legislature was aware of this problematic language and did nothing to fix it is damning - if the Supremes follow their normal practice they will rule in favor of Madison's complaint and say (in their ruling) to the legislature that the legislature needs to fix this.

They will probably say that it's clear that it needs to be rewritten, but it's not the job of the Judicial branch to fix the failings of the legislative branch.

Anonymous said...

Legislators failed to act on medical marijuana ...

Not pursuing legislation to legalize medical marijuana was not a failure to act.

Anonymous said...

Joel Bong-aars anticipated this and had his pot supporting buddy, Rep. Lee Yancy-Gold Coast, try what Watson did. It failed to make it.

Anonymous said...

The elected officials didn't want the unwashed masses to have a way for us to change the law without their say so. this is their way of stopping the initiative process.

Reefer Madness - MS Style said...

How do you expect the legislators to do their job while putting down free (lobbyist purchased) filet mignon steaks and martinis at Tico's?

If 65 is thrown out would 65A be valid?

Anonymous said...

So you're saying Lee Yancey is ready and eager to buck Bryan Bailey? LMAO.

Anonymous said...

... as all the other laws that deal with congressional districts.

Which other existing laws in Mississippi have a similar defect?

Anonymous said...

I don't see how Mary will prevail on the merits of the case in the long run. There's no way a court will ever declare a law, that is mathematically impossible to be complied with, constitutional. If the petitioners can show that the count is in compliance with an equivalent standard (ie pro rata) there's a 0% chance it'll be rejected. Mary just painted a big target on Madison with the business interests that are pushing 65 by pulling this stunt. They'll undoubtedly spend money on the coming zoning lawsuits against her.

Anonymous said...

So the legislature can cancel the actions of the people by merely making it impossible for the people to meet the threshold to change the state constitution? That doesn't sound very small government.

Anonymous said...

Let's all post the same worn out comments that has been posted on the internet for the last 4 weeks.

Anonymous said...

Deep state is making a power play to protect their drug money. If they aren’t allowed to seize houses and cars and bank accounts of suspected potheads, their budgets will dry up. This is a gang turf war, it’s just playing out in court with taxpayer money.

Anonymous said...

12:23 Okay... you first..

Anonymous said...

Over the years, I've had a number of politicians tell me that Mayor Mary sometimes turns political disagreements into personal fights. Is that going on here?

Anonymous said...

"Now tell me again why we don't have term limits?" Do you really expect a legislature comprised of essentially do nothing folks making somewhat good money, from us taxpayers, to do nothing actually pass a law limiting their ability to do what they are doing? Don't ever see that happening.

Anonymous said...

This is a perfect example of why we don't need the pot law in the constitution, which is why 65 and/or 65A need to fail. Not because I am opposed to smoking weed, but because I am opposed to making it a constitutional right! If the people want to smoke weed then the legislature should pass it. If they change their mind later, then the legislature could change it. Otherwise we have weed in the constitution forever.

At the end of the day, the SCT is going to read the intent of the provision and change 1/5 to 1/4 because the intent was not to enshrine the 1/5 split forever, the intent was to have proportionate numbers of signatures gathered across the state. They just assumed we would always have 5 congressmen.

Anonymous said...

Them potheads are throwing a conniption fit thinking their legal dope smoking is SOL. As Rosco P. Coltrane would say, I love it, I love it.

Anonymous said...

So far, 11:37 a.m. seems to have the best take on what SCOM is likely to rule, but what happens next in that case? Can the initiative be removed by Election Day?

Anonymous said...

It's like we live in a People's Democratic Republic where the people have zero say and the party politburo ruling class can do whatever they want with our health, wealth, freedom, and they can also do whatever they want to our children as well.

But at least we still have netflix, amazon, and football!

Anonymous said...

12:09 So you say "There's no way a court will ever declare a law, that is mathematically impossible to be complied with, constitutional"

That makes sense - but if that's the case, then your opening comment is wrong.

If the court would never declare this law constitutional, then Mary has in fact won. And won big.

Yes, the court's job is to decide if a law is constitutional. And they are to decide what a statute (or constitutional amendment in this case) means. If they can tell what it means by the plain language as written, they are not to try to interpret what they think it was meant to mean.

And that's what you, and the pot industry, are wanting the justices to do.

Anonymous said...

Hey Now,@Reefer Madness..
Dont hate on Tico! You might beat his prices, but you can't beat his meat!

Anonymous said...

Mayor Mary isn't upset about pot being sold in Madison.

She is concerned there are no signage restrictions in the amendment.

Be Careful What You Axe For... said...

1:06 - Nothing occurs to Mary until one of her servants tells her to pay attention. You think this was her idea? But, this has blown up in her face since, in the long run, if her lawyer prevails, voter I.D. will also be invalid. The only thing her lawyer can do now is drop the whole thing.

Anonymous said...

The Mayor needs to buy a bong and relax.

Anonymous said...

"Term Limits"

The people that will set term limits or set standards for the citizens to vote on term limits are the people in power that don't want term limits.

So the expression term limits would be an oxymoron? Right?

Anonymous said...

It's good to be Queen.

Anonymous said...

wanna bet the first MM shop in Madison has columns, terra cotta roof and sells designer weed? heck, i may i quit my job and get a loan and open it right up!!! pot there will sell for. 2x the price of the “common” ones in hinds or rankin..

Anonymous said...

The queen didn't figure this out. No way. She just volunteered for the mission because she openly hates Bomgar and no legislator wants their name on the suit.

Anonymous said...

Supreme Court did the right thing by delaying this action until after the election. It might be a moot point. Will be interesting how they deal with it after the voters make their intent known.

Anonymous said...

" Mayor Mary sometimes turns political disagreements into personal fights."

Of course she does. She's a pro when it comes to such !
She's been doing it very well for about 40 years now.

However she did look goofy on last night's news.
During her interview, she should have either worn her mask or removed it completely.

Letting her mask dangle from her ear was an embarrassment.

Plus, why did she wait to the very last to pull this stunt.

The only thing she actually accomplished was a few minutes on camera, and tight anal sphincter muscles for both her friends and foes.

Anonymous said...

Over the years, I've had a number of politicians tell me that Mayor Mary sometimes turns political disagreements into personal fights.

Sure you have.

Anonymous said...

When 65 is passed, I'm gonna make sure to put a Potshop next to a church in Madison. Brick of course.

Anonymous said...

2:39, thats a stretch to claim that if Mayor Mary's claim is found to be correct that it would invalidate Voter ID (or Eminent Domain) -- nobody challenged those initiatives before they were certified, so it is conceivable that they would stand. Or, it might be that someone would have to challenge them as well at which point they could be found to be invalid.

But as to the Voter ID - unlike the situation in 2009 when that initiative effort the Voter ID law would easily pass in the legislature should it be voided due to a Supreme Court ruling on its validity. In 2008-2010, with the Billy McCoy led House of Representatives there was no way that a reasonable ID bill could be passed - today, passing a statute rather than having the constitutional amendment would be no problem. In fact, it could be improved upon with the lessons that have been learned since the adoption of the amendment in 2011.

So dragging that problem across the road doesn't stink up this complaint at all - and your thinking it would cause Mary problems in Madison won't stick.

11:37 said...

1:40 - no the initiative cannot be removed by election day; in fact there have already been many votes cast on the issue.

But that doesn't really matter. It would be a shock if the Court even tried to issue a ruling prior to the election (November 3rd); not enough time for the briefings, much less any deliberation by the Justices.

As the complaint points out, the SOS must certify the election results within 30 days, which will be the timeframe that the Court will probably act. Should they rule the current language invalid, then any votes cast for or against the initiative, or for 65 or 65A, will not be certified.

Anonymous said...

More people are doing weed in Madison than Ole Miss.

Anonymous said...

@ 6:19 you don't "do" weed.

Walkin' Around Sense said...

"At the end of the day, the SCT is going to read the intent of the provision and change 1/5 to 1/4 because the intent was not to enshrine the 1/5 split forever, the intent was to have proportionate numbers of signatures gathered across the state. They just assumed we would always have 5 congressmen."

Wanna bet? The Supreme Court does not have the authority or power to make assumptions. Nor does it have the authority to 'change' the law by turning 1/5 into 1/4. The law, however clumsily written, remains the law until revised or rewritten and the Legislative branch, not the Judicial branch, writes law.


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