Opinion ID: 1182371
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: initiative sections 15, 17 and 18 lobbying activities

Text: In Fritz, the gravamen of the appellants' complaint centers upon the provisions of Initiative 276 which affect lobbying activities. Specifically, these are section 15, RCW 42.17.150, which requires detailed registration by lobbyists; section 17, RCW 42.17.170, which includes extensive reporting of lobbying activities; and section 18, RCW 42.17.180, under which the employers of lobbyists are obligated to report compensation paid directly or indirectly to candidates or public officials. [4] Appellants earnestly contend that their First Amendment right to petition government as extended to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment is violated by the registration and reporting requirements of sections 15, 17, and 18. With regard to section 18, the trial judge reasoned that compliance was impossible, or, at the least, unduly burdensome. He also reasoned that section 18 was overly broad, and bore no relationship to the legitimate purposes of the act. Hence, the trial court held that section 18 unconstitutionally infringed upon the right to petition. The trial court found no errors of constitutional dimension in the provisions of sections 15 and 17. The First Amendment right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances is one of the cornerstones of our constitutional democracy. Since its ancestral beginnings as an obscure provision in the Magna Carta, the right to petition has been commonly understood to be a procedure of an open and public nature. The history of England includes picturesque exercises of this right including a Chartist petition in 1842 six miles in length which had to be broken into bundles before it could be presented to the House of Commons. The right to petition was incorporated into many of the legislative pronouncements of the rebelling colonies and in the Declaration of Independence. In the 1830's, the Congress was deluged with petitions calling for the abolition of slavery. In response, the House adopted a standing rule that all petitions of this nature would be tabled without public notice, or action of any kind. John Quincy Adams vehemently fought and won repeal of the rule maintaining that not even the most abject despotism would deprive the citizen of the right to supplicate for a boon, or to pray for mercy. Other notable examples of open and well publicized petitioning in the history of the United States include: the deployment of unemployed armies of petitioners by General Coxey of Ohio in 1894, the march for bonuses by veterans in 1932, and the dramatic marches of the poor led by Dr. King and Reverend Abernathy in the past decade. We note these examples to emphasize the intrinsically nonsecretive and public nature of the historic development of the right to petition. 11 Encylopaedia of the Social Sciences 98-101 (E. Seligman ed. 1937). [8] That right to petition, of course, is not limited to mass demonstrations, highly publicized in newspaper headlines and in television news reports. In sharp contrast, lobbying can be a far more subtle, unpublicized, and we surmise a more effective method of petitioning the government. The profound effect that lobbying may have upon the legislative processes is tacitly recognized in common references to lobbyist activities as the third house or the fifth estate. We take special and emphatic notice of the fact that lobbyists perform important and constructive functions in communicating the wishes of the interests they represent to the appropriate organs of government. In our opinion, the role of the lobbyist in openly and appropriately communicating with government in regard to legislation and other related functions of government is clearly assured and protected by the First Amendment right to petition government. The purpose and the function of sections 15 and 17 of Initiative 276 are not to restrict or prohibit appropriate and protected communications of the lobbyist. Contrariwise, the effect of these sections of the initiative only requires that one who receives compensation and/or expends funds in lobbying must register and openly and publicly report the nature and extent of his activities in this particular regard. By narrowing its scope to the influence of money upon governmental processes, Initiative 276 avoids unconstitutional restrictions upon the ambit of the guarantees of the First Amendment. Consistent with the intendment of the initiative to avoid possible encroachment upon the right to petition, section 16, RCW 42.17.160, excludes from coverage: (1) any person who simply appears in a public session of a legislative committee or the hearings of public agencies; (2) the press; and (3) one who lobbies without compensation and without making expenditures on behalf of public officeholders. Thus, in this especial and additional manner, the initiative seeks to avoid impingement upon First Amendment guarantees, but requires and implements the disclosure of information which may aid the receiver and the general public in evaluating the influence of money upon legislative decision-making and related functions of government. Discussion of the compensatory and pecuniary aspects of the lobbying profession may be severed from its protected communication aspects as stated by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, The First Amendment does not provide the same degree of protection to purely commercial activity that it does to attempts at political persuasion.... Moreover, the First Amendment does not prevent government from adopting reasonable rules for regulating the conduct of those who seek its favor. George R. Whitten, Jr., Inc. v. Paddock Pool Builders, Inc., 424 F.2d 25, 33 (1st Cir.1970). Hence, where one is engaged professionally and for compensation to persuade or influence the decisions of others as to matters affected with a public interest, he may be subject to extensive disclosure requirements. As an example, an attorney engaging in persuader activities, as defined by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 29 U.S.C.A. § 401 et seq., must report not only receipts and disbursements regarding the business of the persuader's clients, but also his receipts and related disbursements for all labor related services. Price v. Wirtz, 412 F.2d 647 (5th Cir.1969). The pecuniary feature of magazine sales brought that activity within the regulatory power of the state in Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622, 642, 95 L.Ed. 1233, 71 S.Ct. 920, 35 A.L.R.2d 335 (1951), wherein the United States Supreme Court stated, We agree that the fact that periodicals are sold does not put them beyond the protection of the First Amendment. The selling, however, brings into the transaction a commercial feature. The First and Fourteenth Amendments have never been treated as absolutes. Freedom of speech or press does not mean that one can talk or distribute where, when and how one chooses. Rights other than those of the advocates are involved. By adjustment of rights, we can have both full liberty of expression and an orderly life. (Footnotes omitted.) In State v. Conifer Enterprises, 82 Wn.2d 94, 100, 508 P.2d 149 (1973), we upheld a statute prohibiting the paid solicitation of initiative signatures, saying: Clearly, the solicitation of signatures for an initiative petition is political expression falling within the ambit of the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. But RCW 29.79.490(4) does not make it unlawful for respondents to solicit signatures on an initiative petition. Nor does it forbid others from doing likewise at respondents' request. The statute only makes it unlawful for the respondents to pay (or offer to pay) other persons to solicit signatures. This narrow proscription does not abridge respondents' freedom of speech since such payment bears no necessary relationship to their exercise of that right. The United States Supreme Court firmly established the power of the government to require registration and reporting of lobbyists' activities in the landmark decision of United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 625, 98 L.Ed. 989, 74 S.Ct. 808 (1954). In Harriss, which involved a criminal prosecution for failure to register and report under the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act, the court recognized that: Present-day legislative complexities are such that individual members of Congress cannot be expected to explore the myriad pressures to which they are regularly subjected. Yet full realization of the American ideal of government by elected representatives depends to no small extent on their ability to properly evaluate such pressures. Otherwise the voice of the people may all too easily be drowned out by the voice of special interest groups seeking favored treatment while masquerading as proponents of the public weal. This is the evil which the Lobbying Act was designed to help prevent. Toward that end, Congress has not sought to prohibit these pressures. It has merely provided for a modicum of information from those who for hire attempt to influence legislation or who collect or spend funds for that purpose. It wants only to know who is being hired, who is putting up the money, and how much. (Footnote omitted.) The aim of the civil provisions of Initiative 276 is no different. Cf. United States v. Rumely, 345 U.S. 41, 97 L.Ed. 770, 73 S.Ct. 543 (1953). See generally Fleishman, Freedom of Speech and Equality of Political Opportunity: The Constitutionality of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, 51 N.C.L. Rev. 389 (1973); Comment, Public Disclosure of Lobbyists' Activities, 38 Fordham L. Rev. 524 (1970). Initiative 276, as we have noted, was created by the people for the expressed purpose of fostering openness in their government. To effectuate this goal, it is important that disclosure be made of the interests that seek to influence governmental decision making. Thus, the requirements of registration under section 15 and reporting under sections 17 and 18 are designed to exhibit in the public forum the identities and pecuniary involvements of those individuals and organizations that expend funds to influence government. Informed as to the identity of the principal of a lobbyist, the members of the legislature, other public officials and also the public may more accurately evaluate the pressures to which public officials are subjected. Forewarned of the principals behind proposed legislation, the legislator and others may appropriately evaluate the sales pitch of some lobbyists who claim to espouse the public weal, but, in reality, represent purely private or special interests. The electorate, we believe, has the right to know of the sources and magnitude of financial and persuasional influences upon government. The voting public should be able to evaluate the performance of their elected officials in terms of representation of the electors' interest in contradistinction to those interests represented by lobbyists. Public information and the disclosure required by section 24, supra, coupled with that required of lobbyists and their employers may provide the electorate with a heretofore unavailable perspective regarding the role that money and financial influence play in government decision making and other functions performed by public officials. Actually, the mosaic of Initiative 276 is designed to reveal the flow of expenditures incurred in efforts to guide and direct government. The removal of any one element would conceivably leave a loophole area for exploitation by self-serving special interests. Section 18 concerns the reporting of monies paid directly or indirectly to candidates and to public officials. This provision inhibits the flow of secret money from an inappropriate special interest source to legislators or other government officials for inappropriate special interest purposes. Hence, there is a rational nexus between a legitimate societal purpose of the electorate and the requirements of section 18. We cannot concur with the finding of the trial court that compliance with section 18 is impossible. We can agree that the requisite collation of expenditures with the names of public officials may be somewhat voluminous, detailed, and burdensome. It would seem that in most instances the degree of difficulty would escalate in relation to the size of a particular legislative lobbying program. We note that the appellants have made no attempt to apply for a waiver under the hardship provisions of section 37 (9), RCW 42.17.370(9). The burden of collation is eased to some degree by the compilation of a list of public officials kept current by the Public Disclosure Commission. WAC 390-04-080, -090. Further, under its power to implement the provisions of the act, the regulations of the commission have provided that an omission in reporting the name of a public official will be deemed presumptively due to an unreasonable hardship. WAC 390-04-100. In our opinion, promulgation of such regulations would seem to be within the commission's delegated authority. Barry & Barry, Inc. v. Department of Motor Vehicles, 81 Wn.2d 155, 500 P.2d 540 (1972). Since appellant Washington Food Processors Council has made no effort to exhaust its administrative remedies, we are not impressed by its efforts to circumvent those procedures here. State ex rel. Association of Wash. Indus. v. Johnson, 56 Wn.2d 407, 353 P.2d 881 (1960). We are convinced the decision of the trial court should be affirmed as to initiative sections 15 and 17 and reversed as to section 18.