Activist Judges Overturn Voters

Those activist judges are always disregarding the will of the voters and overturning our initiatives, right? Wrong.

In slightly over a decade, at the end of all the appeals, courts have overturned voter-approved initiatives five times. In four of those cases, the legislature immediately stepped in and passed legislation to reinstate or clarify the will of the voters, thereby overruling the courts.

The one percent property tax limit, I-747 was struck by the State Supreme Court and reinstated by a special session of the legislature. The initiative that I-747 had amended, I-722, had previously been struck by the State Supreme Court, but I-747’s reinstatement essentially made that ruling ineffective. The repeal of the motor vehicle excise tax, another Eyman creation, was also struck by the State Supreme Court and preemptively reinstated by the legislature. The initiative limiting the use of union dues for political purposes, I-134, was struck by the State Supreme Court but clarified by the legislature, making its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court moot.

The one case where the legislature has not stepped in yet is the most recent striking of I-297, which would have prevented more nuclear waste from being deposited at Hanford. Attorney General Rob McKenna will decide whether to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. As PolitickerWA’s Bryan Bissell reports, state legislative candidate Gerry Pollet was an organizer behind I-297 and may make this a campaign issue. The question is whether the state legislature can craft a law to affect federal nuclear waste disposal that won’t be preempted by federal law, as I-297 was.

With the help of our elected representatives, it looks like Washington’s voters almost always get their way.