Direct Democracy and the Courts

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
List of Tables and Figures......Page 8
Preface......Page 9
Introduction: A Clash of Rising Powers......Page 11
In re marriage cases......Page 13
The Court's Decision: A Declaration of Rights......Page 17
The Court vs. the Voters......Page 18
Popular Constitutionalism and the Last Word......Page 19
Other Conflicts and Landmark Cases......Page 23
A Comprehensive View......Page 25
Part I The Quest for Majority Rule......Page 27
The founders' rejection of direct democracy......Page 29
The anti-federalist critique and constitutional vision......Page 31
Nineteenth-century democratic aspirations......Page 32
The populists......Page 33
The progressive era debate......Page 35
The Populist Conception......Page 36
The Progressive Conception......Page 37
The Opponents......Page 39
The Federal Constitutional Challenge: Article IV, Section 4......Page 41
Outcome of the progressive era debate......Page 45
The Political Geography of Direct Democracy......Page 47
Other Important Differences Between States......Page 49
Conclusion......Page 50
1900s-1910s: "The Oregon System" and Progressive Era Enthusiasm......Page 51
1920s-1960s: Stages of Decline......Page 54
1970s-2000s: Resurgence......Page 56
The Legislature will not act to reduce your property taxes…......Page 57
Overall Use......Page 60
The Five Strongest Initiative States......Page 61
Political and Government Reform......Page 65
Health, Welfare, and Morals......Page 68
Economic Regulation......Page 70
Environment......Page 71
Taxation......Page 72
Criminal Procedure and Punishment......Page 73
Education......Page 74
The initiative power's impact......Page 75
Early Assessments......Page 76
Post-1970 Assessments......Page 77
Conclusion......Page 80
Part II countering the majority......Page 83
The Legislature......Page 85
The Executive......Page 88
The Courts......Page 89
Founding Era Debate......Page 90
Early Period: The Principle of Restraint......Page 93
1890s-Present: Judicial Enforcement of Rights......Page 95
Judicial review of direct democracy......Page 98
The Argument for Greater Deference......Page 99
The Argument for Less Deference......Page 101
Evidence of Heightened Scrutiny of Initiatives......Page 103
Pre-Election Review......Page 108
Conclusion......Page 110
Judicial protection of the initiative process......Page 111
Challenges and Invalidations......Page 114
Initiative Litigation Data: 1900s-1990s......Page 117
Outcomes in State vs. Federal Courts......Page 119
Outcomes by Initiative Subject Matter......Page 122
Legal Bases of Initiative Challenges and Invalidations......Page 125
Weakest Initiative States......Page 127
Mid-Range States......Page 128
Conclusion......Page 132
5 Conflicts Over Rights......Page 134
Oregon's compulsory public school initiative of 1922......Page 135
The Initiative Campaign......Page 136
First amendment rights......Page 140
Restrictions on Picketing......Page 142
Campaign Finance Regulations......Page 143
Regulation of Party Primaries......Page 144
Other First Amendment Conflicts......Page 145
Comment on Defendant's Refusal to Testify......Page 146
Capital Punishment......Page 147
Three-Strikes-And-You're-Out......Page 148
Other Conflicts over Defendants' Rights......Page 149
Equal protection rights......Page 150
Discrimination Against Protected Minorities......Page 152
Reversal of Policies to Assist Minorities......Page 154
Discrimination Against Non-Protected Minorities......Page 158
Allocation of "Fundamental Rights" - Voting......Page 161
Modern substantive due process rights - privacy and autonomy......Page 162
Conclusion......Page 164
Changing constitutional design......Page 166
The term limits movement......Page 169
Term Limits Initiatives......Page 171
"Scarlet Letter" Initiatives......Page 176
Challenges to Term Limits on State Officials......Page 178
Federal Powers of State Legislatures......Page 181
Federal Supremacy Over State Laws......Page 183
Limits of State Constitutional Protection......Page 187
New Judicial Attempts to Constrain the Initiative Power......Page 188
No-Revision Rule......Page 189
Single-Subject Rule......Page 190
Separate-Vote Requirement......Page 192
Conclusion......Page 194
Part III The Majority Strikes Back......Page 197
The progressive era court crisis......Page 199
The Recall of Judges......Page 201
Theodore Roosevelt's Plan for "Recall of Judicial Decisions"......Page 203
State court judicial activism and popular override......Page 208
The death penalty......Page 210
Counter-mobilization: Proposition 17 (1972)......Page 213
Same-sex marriage......Page 216
The Shape of the Controversy in Other States......Page 219
Removing judges from office......Page 221
Backlash Against the Bird Court......Page 222
Trends in Judicial Elections......Page 223
Impact on Judicial Decisions......Page 224
Conclusion......Page 225
Conclusion: A New Constitutional Equilibrium......Page 226
Expectations and experience......Page 227
State Constitutionalism and the Fight for the Last Word......Page 228
An imperfect experiment......Page 229
The Polarization of Politics......Page 230
The Politicization of the Courts......Page 231
Potential Remedies......Page 232
New equilibrium......Page 233
Appendix: Post-Election Initiative Invalidations......Page 235
References......Page 255
Index......Page 275