Court Opinion

ID: 9730346
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:09:32.357967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:05.950727
License: Public Domain

Shanahan, J.,
dissenting.
The majority concludes that the measure in relators’ petition is not a law.
A law is a rule of civil conduct (see Leymel v. Johnson, 105 Cal. App. 694, 288 P. 858 (1930)), a rule of action prescribed by authority (see Insurance Co. v. Industrial Com., 71 Colo. 495, 208 P. 465 (1922)), and a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the lawmaking power in a state (see Public Service Commission v. N. Y. Central R. R. Co., 193 A.D. 615, 185 N.Y.S. 267 (1920)). Regarding the issues before the court in this case, a law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the lawmaking power of a sovereign. Although relators’ proposed initiative petition does reflect approval of a bilateral nuclear freeze and disapproval of locating MX missiles in Nebraska, the subject of the petition includes more than expressions of public opinion about nuclear weapons. Within 10 days of the operative date of the proposed law, the Governor of Nebraska must take action, that is, send a written communication to certain officials of the U.S. Government and to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The communication from Nebraska’s Governor shall contain the “Statement of Policy” set forth in § 1 of relators’ proposed measure. If relators’ initiative petition receives a favorable vote, then Nebraska’s Governor is required to take definite action — the obligatory written communication transmitted to the designated governmental officials. The duty imposed and the specific action dictated as consequences of the proposed initiative petition, if approved, provide the subject of the petition with the attributes of a law and distinguish the relators’ initiative petition from mere expressions of nonbinding public opinion.
The initiative is an integral and vital part of Nebraska’s democratic process. Courts should not *641weigh the wisdom or social propriety of a measure sought in an initiative petition, for such matters are public policy and politics — arenas or thickets in which courts should be conspicuously absent.
The writ of mandamus should have been granted.
White and Grant, JJ., join in this dissent.