Opinion ID: 836572
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Measure 40 contains two or more amendments to the Oregon Constitution

Text: As can be seen, in addition to adding a number of crime victims' rights to Article I, Measure 40 changes five existing sections of the Oregon Constitution (Article I, sections 9, 11, 12, and 14, and Article VII (Amended), section 5(1)(a)), encompassing six separate, individual rights (pertaining to search and seizure, unanimous jury verdicts, waiver of jury trial, former jeopardy, self-incrimination, and bail), in addition to limiting the legislature's ability to establish juror qualifications in criminal cases. Those multiple constitutional changes effected by Measure 40 are more than sufficient to meet that part of the test for two or more amendments, discussed earlier, that inquires whether the measure at issue makes two or more changes to the constitution. See 327 Or. at 277, 959 P.2d at 64 (stating test). It is equally clear, we think, that the changes effected by Measure 40 are substantive. The remaining issue, then, is whether those changes are not closely related. Many of the constitutional provisions affected by Measure 40 are related in the sense that they pertain to constitutional rights that might be implicated during a criminal investigation or prosecution. However, not allsuch as the requirement that the jury pool in criminal cases be drawn from registered votersshare even that relationship. Further, even those provisions that are related in the sense described are not related closely enough to satisfy the separate-vote requirement of Article XVII, section 1. For example, the right of all people to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under Article I, section 9, has virtually nothing to do with the right of the criminally accused to have a unanimous verdict rendered in a murder case under Article I, section 11. The two provisions involve separate constitutional rights, granted to different groups of persons. Similarly, the right of the criminally accused to bail by sufficient sureties under Article I, section 14, bears no relation to legislation concerning the qualification of jurors in criminal cases under Article VII (Amended), section 5(1)(a). Those examples alone are sufficient to demonstrate that Measure 40 contains two or more amendments to the Oregon Constitution. Accordingly, we conclude that the measure was not adopted in compliance with Article XVII, section 1. We emphasize that we express no view regarding the merits of the changes proposed by Measure 40. Indeed, this court's case law makes clear that Article IV, section 1, grants the people the power to change the Oregon Constitution as they so desire, including modifying or repealing a provision of the Bill of Rights, so long as the proposed change or changes comply with the constitutional requirements for amending the constitution. See Ex Parte Kerby, 103 Or. 612, 616-17, 205 P. 279 (1922) (through their initiative power, the people can adopt a constitutional amendment that expressly or implicitly repeals an existing constitutional provision, including a provision of the Bill of Rights); Boy'd v. Olcott et al., 102 Or. 327, 358-59, 202 P. 431 (1921) (The Constitution prescribes the method by which it may be amended, and the procedure so prescribed is the measure of the power to amend.). Our holding here simply is that Measure 40 contains two or more constitutional amendments that must be voted upon separately under Article XVII, section 1. [18]