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4 

ARIZONA STATE LEGISLATURE v. ARIZONA 
INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMM’N
 
Opinion of the Court 

tions  64–67  (1910).2    But  it  was  not  until  the  turn  of  the 
20th century, as part of the Progressive agenda of the era,
that direct lawmaking by the electorate gained a foothold,
largely  in  Western  States.  See  generally  Persily,  The
Peculiar  Geography  of  Direct  Democracy:  Why  the  Initia­
tive,  Referendum  and  Recall  Developed  in  the  American 
West, 2 Mich L. & Pol’y Rev. 11 (1997).

The  two  main  “agencies  of  direct  legislation”  are  the 
initiative  and  the  referendum.  Munro,  Introductory,  in 
IRR 8.  The initiative operates entirely outside the States’ 
representative assemblies; it allows “voters [to] petition to 
propose  statutes  or  constitutional  amendments  to  be 
adopted or rejected by the voters at the polls.”  D. Magleby, 
Direct  Legislation 1  (1984).    While  the  initiative  allows 
the electorate to adopt positive legislation, the referendum 
serves  as  a  negative  check.    It  allows  “voters  [to]  petition
to  refer  a  legislative  action  to  the  voters  [for  approval  or
disapproval]  at  the  polls.”    Ibid.   “The  initiative  [thus]
corrects  sins  of  omission”  by  representative  bodies,  while 
the  “referendum  corrects  sins  of  commission.”    Johnson, 
Direct  Legislation  as  an  Ally  of  Representative  Govern­
ment, in IRR 139, 142. 

In  1898,  South  Dakota  took  the  pathmarking  step  of
affirming  in  its  Constitution  the  people’s  power  “directly
[to]  control  the  making  of  all  ordinary  laws”  by  initiative
and referendum.  Introductory, id., at 9.  In 1902, Oregon
became the first State  to adopt the initiative as a means, 

—————— 

2 The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 is illustrative of the under­
standing that the people’s authority could trump the state legislature’s. 
Framed  by  a  separate  convention,  it  was  submitted  to  the  people  for
ratification.    That  occurred  after  the  legislature  attempted  to  promul­
gate  a  Constitution  it  had  written,  an  endeavor  that  drew  opposition 
from  many  Massachusetts  towns.    See  J.  Rakove,  Original  Meanings: 
Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution 96–101 (1996); G.
Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787, pp. 339–341
(1969).