Court Opinion

ID: 9848760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:26:48.622511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:44.123924
License: Public Domain

SLOAN, J.,
dissenting.
Time is of the essence in this case so it is not possible to express, at length, the reasons for my dis*556satisfaction with the majority decision. It is recognized, of course, that when this decision is announced time will no longer be material. But it is important that the parties be promptly informed. Accordingly, I will not delay this decision for the more exhaustive research I would prefer. Even so, there is compelling reason to disagree.
The brief filed by petitioners contained a documented recital of the legislative history of the initiative movement in Oregon and of the adoption • of the constitutional declaration of the initiative power. The history of the several enabling legislative enactments was also described and relied on. The majority make no reference to this persuasive historical background. For the reasons before stated it is not possible to incorporate that historical study in this opinion. The material referred to in the brief is readily available for those who may desire to review it. An awareness of those events of the past would convince others, I am sure, that petitioners’ reading of the constitution and the statutes is right. It can be gleaned from a study of the existing records of those events that it was not intended that the Secretary of State should have the power, now granted, to stay or deter an exercise of the people’s power to govern themselves.
It seems important to observe that decision in this case should not be influenced, in the slightest, by any underlying philosophy that a free use of the initiative power to * * propose laws and amendments to the Constitution * # is unwise.
In casting the decision into the questionable contrast between the words “amendment” and “revision” the majority overlook the purport of the two sections of Article XVII of the constitution. Those two sections are directives that are limited to legislative proposals *557for constitutional change. The last sentence of Section 1, Article XVII expressly states that “This Article shall not be construed to impair the right of the people to amend this 'Constitution by vote upon an initiative petition therefore.” That sentence can be read to mean that none of the restrictions otherwise imposed by Section 1 apply to the initiative process. It is obvious that Section 2 is limited to a legislative proposal for revision, whatever the meaning of that word may imply. It appears, therefore, that there is no limitation upon the right of a citizen, or group of citizens, to propose amendments, either as to the number of amendments or the form that they may take.
If this understanding of Article XVII be right, and I believe that it is, it would follow that the real objection to the present proposal is in the form in which it is filed. If the present initiative petition had been filed in a form in which the existing constitution would be amended section by section or even article by article it could not very successfully be contended that the Secretary of State could refuse it. Or, if it had been filed in the form now generally used in amending statutes; that is to bracket out the language eliminated and italicize the language added, it would be difficult to say that the proposal was not an amendment. It is probable that by the use of either form of amendment a citizen asked to sign a petition or to vote would be better informed. But it is not the function of the Secretary of State to decide what form a petition should take. If a citizen dislikes the voluminous form of the proposal he can reject it.
The significant history of the years preceding the adoption of the initiative amendment lends advocacy to that interpretation of the constitutional provisions.
The course of the events which aroused the leaders *558who proposed and the people who adopted the initiative amendment (augmented by the last section of Section 1, Article XVII), as revealed by history, was the inaction by lethargic or indifferent legislatures in regard to changes in the laws that the people deemed essential to their welfare. This, I take it to be, is the same belief of those who now submit the challenged proposal, namely; that the people be given an opportunity to approve or reject changes in our charter of government. This they should be entitled to do.
It must also be considered clear that the initiative process comprehended that if amendments are proposed in too great a number or too embracive in concept to be absorbed by the people in one election then such amendments would be rejected by the people and not by the Secretary of State. And, it appears doubtful that this court has that authority unless the initiative proposal would be repugnant to the supreme law of the land. It was suggested in behalf of defendant that if this court were to deny any discretion on the part of the Secretary of State, then, in that event, he would be obliged to accept and issue a ballot title for a petition seeking to enact Gone With the Wind, for example, as a statute. If reducing the argument to such an absurdity carries any persuasion at all it need only be said that such a decision can abide the event.
Even though none of my colleagues share my views I am, nonetheless, convinced that the writ should issue.