Proposition 49 was an advisory measure on overturning the Citizens United decision slated for our November ballot. At the SRVDC August 28th meeting, a motion was made to endorse a vote of “NO” on confirmation of two California Supreme Court justices, Goodwin Liu and Kathryn Werdegar, who joined in the majority ruling ordering a stay that took Proposition 49 off our November ballot. Another motion was made and passed to table the endorsement motion against reconfirmation of the two justices. Many people who voted to table the motion said they needed more information to reach a decision.
To help members who want more information, we are providing two files as PDF links below: (1) Prop 49 Ruling Commentary and (2) Prop 49 Supreme Court Interim Ruling. Mary Linton drafted the one-page “Commentary”, giving some background and then focusing on political bias in the court’s ruling; it is not a summary. The five-page “Interim Ruling” is largely downloaded from the CA Supreme Court’s website, with the addition of a heading, a URL, paragraph breaks and highlighting. The highlighting focuses on particularly troubling sections by the majority and Justice Liu, as well as some key points in the dissenting statement.
At our August meeting, it came to our attention that the California Constitution, Article 1, Section 3 (a) states: “The people have the right to instruct their representatives…” This is the same “voter instruction” concept that Derek Cressman mentioned with roots in very early US political history.
The Club will take up the endorsement motion again at the October 23rd meeting, even though that will be less than two weeks before election day. We hope these attachments help you reach a decision, and we’ll see you in October!