Court Opinion

ID: 9539486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:04:55.708111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:51.815397
License: Public Domain

LAVENDER, Justice,
concurring specially:
Once a determination is made the proposed statutory scheme involved here is *13patently unconstitutional as violative of the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, the only further question we must decide is whether the people of Oklahoma have a right under either the Oklahoma Constitution or the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to vote on the enactment of a law which is violative of the fundamental law of our country. I do not believe the people have such a right under either the State or Federal Constitutions. What must be remembered here is that the right of initiative inuring in the people is a creature of our State Constitution and the State of Oklahoma, like the people which are its citizens, are a part of a larger whole, the United States of America. As such the State of Oklahoma and her citizens are subject to the supreme law of this country, the Constitution of the United States and the final arbiter of that document is the United States Supreme Court. This recognition has guided us well through most of our history as a nation and I believe it will continue to guide us well in the future. In essence, the recognition is that our country was founded upon and is guided by the rule of law. In that this Court is bound by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in matters of federal constitutional interpretation and if the proposed enactment were voted into law we would be duty bound to strike down its central and primary provisions as viola-tive of the United States Constitution in any post-election facial challenge, I concur in the Court’s opinion invalidating the initiative petition before us and ordering the proposed question stricken from the ballot. Our determination to do so is not a new or novel one. See In re Initiative Petition No. 344, 797 P.2d 326 (Okla.1990); In re Initiative Petition No. 342, 797 P.2d 331 (Okla.1990); In re Initiative Petition No. 314, 625 P.2d 595 (Okla.1980) (all invalidated initiative petitions as violative of the one subject rule under State law). Although I dissented in each of these cases on the ground the proposed measures involved there did not violate the one subject rule, I did not question, as a majority of this Court did not, the authority of this Court to invalidate an initiative petition sought to be submitted to the people based on a constitutional infirmity.
Furthermore, we have squarely held a decision on a constitutional question as to the legality of a measure proposed to be enacted into law through the initiative process may be reached by this Court at the pre-election stage. In re Initiative Petition No. 348, 820 P.2d 772, 780 (Okla.1991) (whether proposed revenue raising provisions violate federal republican form of government guarantee); In re Initiative Petition No. 341, 796 P.2d 267, 269 (Okla.1990) (constitutional challenges under First Amendment to the United States Constitution and OKLA. CONST. art. IV, § 1, separation of powers); In re Initiative Petition No. 315, 649 P.2d 545, 547-548 (Okla.1982) (State constitutional challenges to initiative petition concerning horse racing). Although reasonable people may disagree as to whether we should exercise our authority to review facial constitutional challenges at the pre-election stage it is my view there is no inherent infirmity in our doing so. While it may be easier for us to simply decline to review the facial challenge now because we may then never be faced with having to decide the constitutionality of the proposed statutory scheme either because it may, in fact, not be enacted into law by the voters or, if it is, any post-election challenge may be brought in federal court rather than in the State court system, our responsibility as judges is not simply to take the easiest course. Accordingly, because we have the authority to decide the type of constitutional question presently before us and the proposed legislation sought to be enacted into law by the involved initiative petition is facially unconstitutional in violation of the United States Constitution I concur in the majority opinion to invalidate the initiative petition and to strike it from the ballot.
I am authorized to state SIMMS, KAU-GER and SUMMERS, JJ., join in the views expressed herein.