Election Law: "Putting a chill on the initiative process; An appeals court ruling that requires petitions to be multilingual in certain areas could short-circuit propositions and recalls"

December 12, 2005

"Putting a chill on the initiative process; An appeals court ruling that requires petitions to be multilingual in certain areas could short-circuit propositions and recalls"

The Los Angeles Times has published my oped this morning. It begins: "A LITTLE-NOTICED ruling from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month threatens to throw a monkey wrench into California's initiative process, and it has already been used by City Council members in Rosemead to block a recall election. The court should reconsider the case, and in the meantime indicate that its ruling does not apply to recall and initiative petitions already in circulation at the time of the court's decision in late November."

Posted by Rick Hasen at December 12, 2005 06:32 AM

Comments

Mr. Hasen:

I do not agree that the Padilla case lends itself to the easy conclusion that its holding will be extended to initiative petitions as you assert in your LAT piece. That decision was based largely on an EC provision that allowed the local official to approve and, most importantly, edit a portion of recall petitions. While initiative petitions are subject to T&S and EC formatting requirements, I do not believe that the Padilla case could or should be logically extended to initiative petitions. (Obviously, I see an analogy, as you point out.) My fear is that between your op-ed and the Flashreport blog, that so much "toothepaste is getting out of the tube" on this that the court might be swayed by all of the "conclusions" that are already out there in the public domain.

My thoughts for what they are worth.

Posted by: John Ramirez at December 12, 2005 07:01 PM

As a Rosemead resident, I could not understand how two city council members could vote to cancel their own recall election on December 5th, 2005, and it would not merit any sort of mention in the Los Angeles Times until your editorial appeared fully one week later.

Yes, we're a small city. But we're only 12 miles from Los Angeles. AND THEY CANCELLED AN ELECTION!!!

(Since reinstated, at least for now).

Posted by: Todd at December 17, 2005 11:56 AM