Posted on 10/10/2009 11:47:33 AM PDT by reaganaut1
LOS ANGELES — In a rare public rebuke of state government and policies delivered by a sitting judge, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court scathingly criticized the state’s reliance on the referendum process, arguing that it has “rendered our state government dysfunctional.”
In remarks prepared for a speech Saturday before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass., the chief justice, Ronald M. George, denounced the widespread use of the referendum process to change state laws and constitutions. And he derided California as out of control, with voters deciding on everything from how parts of the state budget are spent to how farm animals are managed.
The state is unusual, he said, because it prohibits its Legislature from amending or repealing many types of laws without voter approval, essentially hamstringing that body — and the executive branch.
...
Justice George wrote that perhaps the “most consequential” impact of the referendum process is that it limits “how elected officials may raise and spend revenue.” He added, “California’s lawmakers, and the state itself, have been placed in a fiscal straitjacket by a steep two-thirds-vote requirement — imposed at the ballot box — for raising taxes.”
...
Citing a successful ballot initiative that same Election Day that regulated the confinement of fowl in coops, Justice George said, “Chickens gained valuable rights in California on the same day that gay men and lesbians lost them.” He added, “The court over which I preside frequently is called upon to resolve legal challenges to voter initiatives. Needless to say, we incur the displeasure of the voting public when, in the course of performing our constitutional duties as judges, we are compelled to invalidate such a measure.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“This judge does not want the people to make laws because he wants that power for the court.”
Seems that way, doesn’t it?
Well, there's all you need to know about "Justice George" - - wow, what a sick scumbag.
Judge High and Mighty Supreme Know-It-All is PEEVED that the little people are trying to have a say in their government.
As conservative as the court has been professed to be by many, it has sure stunk the joint up of late.
"Ronald M. George, denounced the widespread use of the referendum process to change state laws and constitutions. And he derided California as out of control, with voters deciding on everything from how parts of the state budget are spent to how farm animals are managed."
Because California judges like intimacy with farm animals...
He seems to think we have a money problem, we don’t, we have a spending problem.
The problem is that policticians want to keep buying votes with someone elses money.
You mean like Albany? Our representatives have failed us miserably!
The judge thinks people should allow the legislature and the courts to run their lives. The people have learned better than to believe them
Pure B.S. being spouted by a tax us into prosperity type fool!
Californians are already taxed at or very near the top in every tax category.
A lot of good our votes did to not raise taxes. Schwarzie still doubled our DMV fees. Still raised business fees when the voters said lower their taxes so we have a environment corps want to do business in.
We vote for a amendment and now it is being fought. Ex Guvnah Moonbeam wants gay marriage legal and even tried to screw with the amendment wording. Obama will repeal DOMA and it won’t matter anyway. They will marry in the states that allow gay marriage and California must acknowledge the marriage as legal. When they want to ignore voters they find ways around it.
Was it Barney Frank who said recently he saw no problem in congress not voting on legislation,they knew what was good for the people?!
Lord help us when the justice system thinks dictator rule is not dysfunctional!
This California Grand PooBah, also known as Ronald M.George, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, is upset that the citizens of California are exercising their right - in a democracy - to decide by what laws they wish to be governed. Well!
He wants a government of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers... The bar associations are hungry for more power to rule by decree...
The best way to starve them out is financially, through the referendum. They know this...
It is not the "people" who have screwed up this state, it is the corrupt legislature and the power grubbing courts!
Say what you want about California ex-governor Pete Wilson, but at least he saw the bar associations had become a shadow government answerable to nobody but themselves...
I rather liked Pete Wilson... saying that often gets me a lot of rightly deserved flak, he wasn't perfect, but he was a damn good Marine from my perspective.
Apparently it didn't stop them from spending hard enough does it?
Ronald M. George opens his mouth, and as a result, the world judges him as little more than an idiot in a robe, unqualified to occupy the powerful position that has been entrusted to him.
Wow, epic fail there Judge George...
You’ve hit the nail on the head for me. Yes, the referendum has been the savior of our state a number of times. Prop 13, removing the Chief Justice and two other sitting justices on the state Supreme Court..., prop 187.
That being said, the state should be run in a manner that aleviates the need for the initiative process.
The initiative process can hurt us as easily as it can help.
I submit all the bond measures that obligate the state to take on new debt, pay it and the interest off over time.
The voters have just about never seen a bond measure for schools that they will turn down. Other leftist measures like adding taxes on cigarettes so Rob Reiner could have pocket case were also a bane on the state.
This state is so screwed up. It’s been in the hands of Democrat Legislative control for a long long time, a number of decades, except for one very short hick-up.
It’s time for a massive change in leadership.
The California government is dysfunctional, but not because of the referendum process. Has anyone noticed that whenever something sensible happens, it is usually because it won on referendum? You know, banning gay marriage, freezing government salaries ...
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