The Legislature approved placing a measure on the 2014 ballot that was to ask voters for their non-binding opinion whether the United States constitution should be amended to overturn the United States Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision. The California Supreme Court removed the measure from that ballot so the court could decide whether the Legislature had the authority to use a ballot measure for that purpose.
Five months ago, the court held the Legislature’s 2014 measure was in fact proper, but it also ruled that new legislation was necessary to put an advisory question on the 2016 ballot. The Legislature has now passed that legislation, which became law yesterday without Governor Jerry Brown’s signature. (The Governor did the same thing with the 2014 legislation, stating that, although he disagreed with the Citizens United opinion, “we should not make it a habit to clutter our ballots with nonbinding measures as citizens rightfully assume that their votes are meant to have legal effect.”)
Not that it should matter to the validity of the Legislature’s action, but the question for the 2016 ballot is a bit broader than the one that the voters would have faced in 2014. The 2014 version asked whether Congress should propose and the California Legislature ratify a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. In five months, however, the voters will weigh in on whether “California’s elected officials [should] use all of their constitutional authority, including, but not limited to, proposing and ratifying one or more amendments to the United States Constitution” to overturn Citizens United. (Emphasis added.) This would presumably encourage California’s Legislature not just to wait for Congress to propose a constitutional amendment, but also to affirmatively call for a constitutional convention to propose an amendment.
