Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Sid Salter: As Usual, Restoration of Ballot Initiative Will be a Long, Complex Fight

 Once again, the issue of whether Mississippi voters should have the very straightforward power to bypass the Mississippi Legislature and propose changes to state statutes or the state Constitution of 1890 is front and center.

This is a fight for lawmaking power that has ebbed and flowed through the Legislature and the state courts for over a century. The Legislature adopted an earlier initiative process in 1914. The state Supreme Court upheld it in 1917 but reversed that ruling five years later in another case. The high court passed on a chance to undo that ruling in 1991.

From 1993 through 2021, Mississippians had the option of taking the power away from the Legislature and changing the state constitution as they deemed appropriate when the Legislature refused to act. The process was called initiative and referendum, and it was neither easy nor often successful. The 1992 initiative process in Mississippi was designed by the Legislature to be difficult for those citizens who wished to circumvent their power.

The Mississippi House passed House Concurrent Resolution 11 last week by a margin of 80 to 39. It’s the third attempt by the House to restore some form of ballot initiative power to the voters, albeit a version that affords voters far less power than they had before the state Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the state’s 1992 ballot initiative law was rendered “unworkable and inoperable” by the Legislature’s failure to amend the law to reflect the state’s loss of a congressional district after the 2000 census. 



That legal challenge came after the 2020 elections when Mississippi voters approved a voter initiative authorizing a medical marijuana program outlined in Initiative 65 over the express objections of the majority of legislative leaders.

Mississippi voters gave Initiative 65 a 73.7% approval while giving the legislative alternative Initiative 65A only 26.3% of the vote. The pro-marijuana initiative outpolled Republican incumbent President Donald Trump by some 20 percentage points with state voters — even outpolling the state’s 72.98% decision to change the state flag. (KF: Actually it was 58%)

State Supreme Court Justice Josiah Coleman wrote of the 1992 ballot initiative law in that decision: “To work in today’s reality, it will need amending – something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.” The overall court decision was even more blunt: “The reduction in Mississippi’s congressional representation renders it unworkable and inoperable on its face.”

But the fatal flaw in the 1992 ballot initiative law was well-known. Succinctly, legislative inaction on amending the 1992 ballot initiative law killed direct democracy through ballot initiative in this state, not the high court.

Oversight? Hardly. The Legislature grew increasingly worried about the 1992 ballot initiative laws after the 2015 elections. Initiative 42 sought to put “adequate and efficient” public school funding in the state constitution and empower the state’s chancery courts to enforce such funding. It failed, but by a tight margin.

Initiative 42 not only made it to the ballot, but it also became the defining issue in the 2015 statewide elections. From start to finish, the pro-42 effort was a well-oiled, well-financed political effort – one that provided a political roadmap to those who could put enough money and organizational muscle into a ballot initiative to thwart the will of the legislative majority.

So, there wasn’t a lot of legislative weeping when the Supreme Court ruling on the medical marijuana ballot initiative neutered the entire ballot initiative process. With a Medicaid expansion initiative and an early voting initiative in the political bullpen both with the ability to attract both money and organizational prowess, the lines were drawn.

There is sincere renewed sentiment in the Legislature in both houses to restore ballot initiative rights to state voters. But exactly how those rights are restored – or restricted – is where the process can derail.

HCR 11 offers a path to ballot initiatives that is again exceedingly difficult. It also contains new restrictions on the content of initiatives that significantly limit the ability of state voters to have an impact on substantive issues and protect legislative authority and power.

But given our state’s history on this question and the accompanying national review of ballot initiative rights in other states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota and Utah – it’s not surprising that Mississippi is where we currently are on this issue. 

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.

 


17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sid needs to misdirect on 65 in order to buttress his narrative.

Anonymous said...

First the conumdrum exists because of the challeng to 65.

This is so easy to resolve. We could call it the 25% intiative. The legislature should change the offending constitutional article to read “25%”. From it’s current “20%”.

It is literally that simple to fully restore what we had before Mayor Mary f*cked it up.

If anything less is proposed, it will fail to meet the demands of the constitution and will be litigated for years. A highly effective strategy to deny our constitutional rights during the intervening court battles.

Anonymous said...

the baptist's that run the state are scared we might change things for the better ...
why is mississippi last ?

Anonymous said...

@12:20, who exactly is 'we'? Be specific.

Anonymous said...

The biggest mistake the Legislature made in the 1990's with the original Initiative law was to allow it to be used to put things in the MS Constitution.

This almost allowed Marijuana Law to be put in the Constitution, which is foolish. Once it is in the Constitution, it is almost impossible to change. Whatever you think about Mayor Mary Hawkins, you should be thankful that she was successful in her challenge.

The result of that challenge is that the 1990's Initiative law is now moot. Another result is that a rational medicinal marijuana law is now in the STATUTORY law of Mississippi, and not in the constitution. This allows that law to be changed as needed. This will come in handy whenever the state, like many others have already done, decides to legalize recreational marijuana.

In light of this, the Legislature should pass a new Initiative process which allows citizen initiative to amend STATUTORY law (the Mississippi Code) and not the MS Constitution. Rep. Fred Shanks seems to get this. I'd follow his lead on this issue.

Anonymous said...

They fear finding out with certainty that their women aren't willing to jump through hoops to get quick and efficient medical care !

Anonymous said...

Baptist Tehran

Anonymous said...

What? Government of the people by the people for the people? What an utterly hare-brained scheme. That's why we need and have government bureaucracy.

Anonymous said...

@1:30
Read the Mississippi constitution.
It’s written at the Mississippi level. You’ll learn something.

Anonymous said...

If ever reasonably reinstated, there will quickly follow the voice of the people on abortion, and nobody’s gonna let that happen

Anonymous said...

Abortion has been exempted in draft bills from both houses.

When this thing finally washes out (not in Delbert's lifetime) the only thing we the people can successfully get done is to alter the amount of popcorn salt applied at the local theaters.

Bill Dees said...

The current Initiative and Referendum bill advanced by Speaker White is a joke. Just give us the old law with the Congressional District issue corrected.

Anonymous said...

I wish Dennis was on the federal bench already.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of the judicially orchestrated gerrymandering that kept Hayes Dent out of the legislature three years ago. "We want fair, free and open elections, where the public has a voice, and their voice counts...but we also have to ensure that someone of the right color gets elected".

Anonymous said...

Hang with me for a second while I paint this picture of political irony:

Mississippi's Voter ID initiative took place twelve years ago through the referendum process of gaining signatures throughout the state.

The process worked, the ballot measure passed and Voter ID became law June, 2012, thanks entirely to the Initiative and Referendum process.

Delbert Hoseman is, today, the primary obstacle in the way of restoring our Initiative and referendum process.

Delbert Hoseman, during his last four three campaigns has attempted to take full credit for our Voter ID law - "I brought you Voter ID", his ads claimed.

Delbert Hoseman had nothing to do with the process of gaining the appropriate number of signatures to get Voter ID on the ballot.

The Mississippi Legislature had forever refused to act on the need in this state for a Voter ID Law.

Along came hundreds of republican volunteers covering the entire state to get more than the required number of signatures necessary to force the legislature's hand.

Delbert Hoseman now heralds the monumental success of the very right he stands in the way of our re-gaining.

Anonymous said...

@ 1/31 1:30 PM - You posted this: The biggest mistake the Legislature made in the 1990's with the original Initiative law was to allow it to be used to put things in the MS Constitution.

Help me out here. Remind me which ballot initiative wound up in the MS Constitution.

And I don't trust Rankin County Deputy Sheriff Fred Shanks no further than I can punt him on a short field!

Anonymous said...

One of the most important subjects facing Mississippians today and it gets 16 posts.


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