Opinion ID: 1155549
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: a pre-submission determination of the constitutionality of the initiative petition is appropriate and necessary where the proposal is facially unconstitutional and is justified when a costly and futile election may be avoided.

Text: Although the proponents continue to press for an election on the initiative petition, they apparently admit that the petition was unconstitutional under Roe when it was drafted and circulated, and that, if it were adopted by a vote of the people, it would be unconstitutional under Roe and Casey. The proponents claim that notwithstanding the facial unconstitutionality of Initiative Petition No. 349, the people should be permitted to vote because In re Supreme Court Adjudication of Initiative Petitions in Norman, Oklahoma, 534 P.2d 3, 8 (Okla. 1975) was wrongly decided, and additionally that the people have an absolute right to vote on any measure. The proponents urge us to allow a vote on the petition in order to present a test case urging the United States Supreme Court to overrule or to redetermine Roe and Casey. The protestants, the Attorney General, and the amici charge not only that the measure is unconstitutional under Casey, but that to allow the question to appear on the November ballot would be to sanction a costly, divisive, and unnecessary election. The Attorney General, who may under certain circumstances have the duty of defending the measure if it were adopted by a vote of the people and subsequently challenged, asserts that such a measure cannot be defended because no principled argument can be made in its defense. In re Supreme Court Adjudication of Initiative Petitions in Norman, Oklahoma, 534 P.2d 3, 8 (Okla. 1975), was decided seventeen years ago. Since then, this Court, in an unbroken chain of decisional law, has held that a determination on a constitutional question as to the legality of a measure proposed to be enacted into law by the people will be reached by this Court when raised by a party if, in the Court's opinion, reaching the issue may prevent the holding of a costly and unnecessary election. That finding has been reaffirmed by this Court on at least four subsequent occasions. In re Initiative Petition No. 348, 820 P.2d 772, 780 (Okla. 1991); In re Initiative Petition No. 347, 813 P.2d 1019, 1030 (Okla. 1991); In re Initiative Petition No. 341, 796 P.2d 267, 269 (Okla. 1990); and In re Initiative Petition No. 315, 649 P.2d 545, 547-48 (Okla. 1982) all solidly stand for the premise that if a properly preserved constitutional challenge is leveled at a proposed law and a ruling on the issue would prevent a useless election resulting in the enactment of an unconstitutional statute, this Court has the authority, as well as the responsibility, to decide the matter. We cannot undervalue the importance of the constitutional right, under the Oklahoma Constitution, to initiative and referendum. Nor may we ignore our constitutional duty. In Ralls v. Wyland, 40 Okla. 323, 138 P. 158, 160 (1914), the Oklahoma Supreme Court held that: The powers of the initiative and the referendum reserved to the people occupy a prominent place in the Constitution and laws of this state, and their act, when invoking such powers, should be guarded by the courts, to the end that whatever is their due is kept inviolate. In the exercise of such powers, it is necessary that the provisions of the Constitution should be adhered to.  (Emphasis supplied.) The very first article of the Oklahoma Constitution and its very first section acknowledge that the State of Oklahoma is an inseparable part of the Federal Union, and the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land. The very first section of the Bill of Rights of the Okla.Const. art. 2, § 1 limits the right of the initiative. It provides: All political power is inherent in the people; and government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and to promote their general welfare; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it; Provided, such change be not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.  (Emphasis supplied.) The proponents eleventh hour revelation that they apparently knew that Initiative Petition No. 349 was unconstitutional when it was drafted, circulated, and submitted only serves to raise additional questions about its legitimacy. Were prospective signers of the proposition informed of its unconstitutionality, and of its strategic role in a long-range strategy of political advocacy i.e., its test case status? Or conversely, were the signers led to believe that they were supporting a proposition that would enjoy legal validity if adopted by the voters? There is nothing in the ballot title or anywhere else in the record before us from which we can discern that the ballot title was in harmony with the law, or that it is legally correct. The argument that the proposition should be placed before the voters, notwithstanding that it violates the law of the land as expressed in Casey, raises the additional issue of the treatment of those citizens who may support state-imposed limitations on abortions, but who are not inclined to vote for an unconstitutional measure. The Okla.Const. art. 5, § 6 provides: Any measure rejected by the people, through the powers of the initiative and referendum, cannot be again proposed by the initiative within three years thereafter by less than twenty-five per centum of the legal voters. [20] Although initiative voters always must face the dilemma posed by the three-year rule, this dilemma is unnecessarily sharpened by the proponent's insistence on the submission of a patently unconstitutional measure where defeat will impair the initiative rights of those supporters who also support constitutional government. While this Court cannot monitor every aspect of every initiative campaign, it can express its concern about a post-circulation concession of unconstitutionality and its impact on this vital component of our political democracy. [21] The proponents appear to assert that this absolute right to vote is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. At the same time, they concede that the right of initiative does not arise from the United States Constitution. Indeed, only twenty-three of our sister states provide this constitutional right. It seems self-evident that the exercise of a non-federal right can be conditioned by the same state constitution that creates and confers it. In this instance, art. 2, § 1 of the Okla. Const. bars statutory enactments which violate the law of the land. Assuming arguendo, the relevance of proponents' core speech argument in this context, it is obvious that these rights are not absolute. Judicial intervention to interdict a hypothetical state constitutional amendment prohibiting the free exercise of religion would limit the proponents core speech activities; however, no one would question the legitimacy of such a limitation. We understand the proponent's characterization of their petition as core political speech as additional emphasis for the importance of the initiative process and for placing the proposition on the November ballot  and not as an attempt to raise a First Amendment claim. It is, in effect, an argument that their free speech rights to advocate an unconstitutional law outweigh constitutional rights of all other Oklahomans that the Oklahoma Constitution should not be repugnant to the Constitution which we all share as Americans. The Oklahoma drafters were careful to frame a constitution which was in harmony with the constitution written by the founding fathers. Our reverence for the initiative rights guaranteed by the Oklahoma Constitution cannot be overstated. It is our profound belief that our rejection of the Threadgill v. Cross, 26 Okla. 403, 109 P. 558, 562 (1910) rule which held that the constitutionality of an initiative petition is not subject to review prior to its enactment by the voters, and our reaffirmation of constitutional lawmaking principles enhances those rights rather than diminishes them. Not surprisingly, the proponents have not cited us to a single provision of federal or Oklahoma law which trammels their First Amendment rights under the federal constitution, and our own review discloses none. The proponents rely upon Myer v. Grant, 486 U.S. 414, 421, 108 S.Ct. 1886, 1891, 100 L.Ed.2d 425, 434-35 (1988) [22] for the proposition that a pre-submission judicial review of the constitutionality of Initiative Petition No. 349 violates core political speech protected by the First Amendment. The reliance on Myer is misplaced. In Myer, the United States Supreme Court held that Colorado could not prohibit payment of persons hired to circulate initiative petitions. Here, the procedural issue of paying circulators is not presented. The manner in which the petition was circulated is not at issue. Nothing in this opinion should be read to limit the content of any petition circulated. However, if an unconstitutional measure garners enough signatures to be presented to the people and is challenged on constitutional grounds, presubmission judicial review is appropriate. [23] This Court's action is not based on the content of the proponents' speech; rather, it responds to the lawfulness of that speech in the context of our fundamental law on initiative and referendum. Nothing in this Court's action precludes the proponents of legal limitations on abortion from bringing forward a proposal on that exact subject matter so long as the proposal conforms to the applicable legal requirements for initiative proposals. In this context, the most basic requirement of the Oklahoma Constitution is that the change in law petitioned for be compatible with the United States Constitution as construed by the United States Supreme Court. It should also be noted that the proponents of change in federal constitutional law are entirely free to exercise their First Amendment rights in the arenas where federal law is shaped. We noted in In re Petition No. 281, State Question No. 441, 434 P.2d 941, 946 (Okla. 1967) that the real purpose of an initiative petition is to secure a vote of the people upon a proposed law or constitutional amendment. We also expressed the view that the repeal of any conflicting provisions of the law in effect at the time the proposed law is to become effective as being merely incidental to the purpose of the petition. This is not what is before us here. The proponents apparently take the position that they are not attempting to amend Oklahoma law. The goal clearly implicit in their test case strategy is a change in federal constitutional law. The initiative process guaranteed to our citizens by the Oklahoma Constitution was never intended to be a vehicle for amending the United States Constitution  nor can it serve that function in our system of government. [24] The proponents also complain that because bills pending before the Legislature are not subject to pre-enactment judicial scrutiny for constitutional flaws, we should similarly defer consideration of this proposition until such time as the people have acted. This argument quite simply mixes apples and oranges, and it ignores the many longstanding and well-recognized differences between these two modes of lawmaking. Few, if any, of the pre-enactment requirements governing the initiative and referendum process are applicable to the legislative process, such as, for example: [25] circulating petitions, signature verifications, eighth-grade reading level of the ballot title, mandatory challenge periods, and submission to the Attorney General of the ballot title for review for legal correctness. Likewise, many of the hurdles built into our legislative structure do not apply to initiatives and referenda: namely, passage by both houses, legislative committee consideration, and the availability of a gubernatorial veto. These are two very different processes and the proponents' efforts to confuse them are misplaced. The proponents also claim that the proposal here is different from the Casey restrictions. Yes, it is. It is different, most significantly, in that Initiative Petition No. 349 is so much more restrictive that it could not be enforced in a manner consistent with the Liberty Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (Subject to some procedural restrictions, the Pennsylvania statute [26] reviewed in Casey did not ban first trimester abortions.) Even though the proponents continue to cling to Threadgill v. Cross, 26 Okla. 403, 109 P. 558, 562 (1910), this Court implicitly recognized in 1975, that the Threadgill doctrine was frequently nothing more than a rationalization for deferring obvious issues of constitutionality. The effect of this doctrine, especially when it involves transparently unconstitutional proposals, is subject to the perception by the citizens of our state that their votes, so eagerly solicited, are ultimately meaningless acts in an elaborate charade. The danger of Threadgill is that, in effect, citizens may be led to believe that their votes on matters of intense public concern count, when this Court is already fully aware that the proposed measure is subject to being struck down as unconstitutional within months should the voters approve it. Conversely, the vote on an indisputably unconstitutional measure will almost certainly be distorted by widespread citizen awareness of the invalidity of the measure. In any event, a truly meaningful vote on the initiative becomes impossible. The underlying sense of our cases dating back to 1975 is that Threadgill trumpets a triumph of form over substance which calls into question the very legitimacy of the initiative process itself by merely postponing the inevitable. For seventeen years, the majority of this Court has understood that the Threadgill doctrine has been modified to the extent that it no longer operates as a bar to the pre-submission review of constitutional defects in initiative proposals. Here, the initiative petition makes no allowance for a woman's pre-viability decision on whether to obtain an abortion. If enacted, it could not withstand a Casey -based challenge; and, at best, it would serve as an expensive, non-binding public opinion poll. Were we to allow the initiative to be submitted to the people, a costly, fruitless, and useless election would take place. The pragmatic approach to the consideration of constitutional issues begun in Norman strengthens rather than impairs the initiative process because voters are assured that their vote on a state question is meaningful. The utilization of pre-submission constitutional scrutiny guarantees that Oklahomans are neither cut off at the pass nor engaged in a game of Kings-X after they have exercised their most precious right  the right to vote.