Court Opinion

ID: 9539487
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:04:55.711455+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:53.722850
License: Public Domain

SIMMS, Justice,
concurring:
I concur fully in the majority opinion authored by Justice Kauger, and I join *14those views expressed in the writing of Justice Lavender, but write briefly to address the dissenting views of the Chief Justice, Vice Chief Justice, and my colleague Justice Wilson.
The writing of both the Chief Justice and the Vice Chief Justice refer to Mr. Justice Blackmun’s age and a potential or impending change in personalities on the Supreme Court of the United States. This approach, in my view, ignores the foundation of a stable and orderly system of justice as we know it in this country, stare decisis. By basing a conclusion which might or might not occur in the future to personalities on the high court, they stray from the steady course our ship of state has sailed for over two hundred years, that ours is a government of laws and not of men. We should not be a slave of stare decisis nor should we, as judicial officers, ignore stare decisis when the Supreme Court of the United States has spoken.
I also must respectfully disagree with the Chief Justice that this matter should be transferred to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The review of initiative petitions is vested both by Constitution and statutes in the Supreme Court. Title 34, O.S.1991, § 8; In re Initiative Petition No. 314, 625 P.2d 595, 607 (Okla.1981). There is no provision under Oklahoma law which authorizes review of initiative petitions by the Court of Criminal Appeals, which is one of limited jurisdiction. Such a transfer of this case at this stage of the proceedings is unprecedented in Oklahoma. We do not herein consider the appeal of a conviction or reserved question of law under a criminal prosecution, nor is this matter incidental to an appeal in a criminal case. The initiative petition to consider liquor by the drink, pari-mutuel betting, and an ethics commission each contained criminal penalties, but no one remotely considered transferring those cases to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
We are herein addressing a complex but yet very simple issue, i.e., whether or not this initiative petition comports with Federal constitutional law, and the law of the State of Oklahoma. The citizens of this state have reserved unto themselves by enactment of our constitution, the right to effect statutory or constitutional change through the initiative process. Art. 5, § 1, Okla.Const. However, the people have imposed upon themselves a restriction by approving Art. 2, § 1, Okla.Const., which reads “... Provided such change shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.” This is the issue which this Court is duty bound to review, and not the Court of Criminal Appeals.
I am authorized to state that LAVENDER, KAUGER, and WATT, JJ., join with me in the views expressed in this concurring opinion.