Opinion ID: 1125394
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Political Process of Lawmaking by Initiative

Text: ¶ 12 The Oklahoma system of constitutional democracy authorizes the electorate to legislate directly by initiating and passing measures that may change the State's constitution as well as her statutes. [19] Article 5 of Oklahoma's fundamental law reserves in the people the right of the initiative (popular law-making) [20] and of the referendum (the enacted law's popular disapproval). [21] The ninety-day signature-collecting process is triggered by the pre-circulation filing of the initiative petition with the Secretary of State. [22] By the end of the prescribed ninety-day period, the proponents must submit, by post-circulation filing, the signed pamphlets of the petition. [23] Early Oklahoma jurisprudence teaches that when exercising their right to propose laws for popular enactment, the people are deemed to be members of the largest legislative body in the state. [24] The process of changing statutory law or the State's constitution through the initiative route is a form of sanctioned popular lawmaking. Lawmaking is a classical form of political process. The State's initiative and referendum, which is without a counterpart in the political institutions of the federal government, has neither been explicitly sanctioned nor condemned as violative of the republican form of government. [25]