The Supreme Court today barred the split-California initiative not only from the 2018 ballot, something it had already done, but also from “any future ballot.” The permanent action is a consequence of the initiative’s proponent abandoning any defense of it in Planning and Conservation League v. Padilla, the writ proceeding challenging the initiative’s validity.
The court said, “we construe the [proponent’s] filing as consenting to the entry of a stipulated judgment in favor of petitioner. The court has received no objection to proceeding in this fashion.”
The court’s order presumably is not precedent that would prevent a different split-California initiative from qualifying for a later ballot. However, any future proponent is on notice that Supreme Court litigation would likely await an initiative that is similar to the one that the court today killed.
