Thus were technological limitations in 1787 of crucial importance in determining the structure of Congress as defined in the Constitution. Removing technological barriers still leaves a constitutional question about the power of the people to legislate in some minds. 6 Second, today nineteen states permit their citizens to legislate by initiative, California, Missouri and Oregon for example. Additionally, twenty-three states use referenda. A considerable number of local jurisdictions also permit people to make laws.
American citizens have a hand in making laws in forty-two states.
Even though these laws are different in each state, the constitutional lawmaking powers of the people have been repeatedly sustained by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, pundits, government officials, scholars and assorted elites view initiative lawmaking with suspicion because the initiative process, as they see it, is not sufficiently deliberative. Deliberation is vital to lawmaking. The charge is accurate. The original reformers writing these laws, with little legislative experience, naively failed to realize the need for detailed, deliberative, legislative procedures.