California Recall Proponents File Lawsuit Against New Law that Changed the Recall Rules in the Midst of a Recall Petition Drive

On July 20, proponents of the recall of a Democratic California State Senator filed a lawsuit against the new law that changed the rules for recalls and which went into effect immediately. The new law was SB 96, signed into law last month. See this story.

The case is Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association v Padilla, filed in the State Appeals Court, 3rd district, case 85176. The lawsuit argues that it violates due process to change the petition rules in the middle of a petition drive. It also argues that SB 96 violates the “single subject” rule; it was mainly a budget bill. UPDATE: here is the opening brief.

Before SB 96 was passed, it was already possible for signers to withdraw their signatures from a recall petition. But SB 96 said that signers could withdraw their signatures even after the petition had been submitted. It also permitted election officials to delay the recall, even if it had enough signatures, while the election-administration cost of the recall election was calculated. The bill did not set any limits on how long that might take.


Comments

California Recall Proponents File Lawsuit Against New Law that Changed the Recall Rules in the Midst of a Recall Petition Drive — 2 Comments

  1. ALL MAJOR election law points now have to be put into constitutions due to the now TOTAL evil and corruption in New Age legislative bodies — i.e. rotted to the core robot party hacks who are now ENEMIES of the People.

    See the rotted hacks in the Brit regime in 1773-1781.

    See the rotted hacks in the slave State regimes in 1860-1865.

  2. It is quite possible that the bill was signed into law AFTER the enough signatures had been collected.

    On June 7, counties had reported 31,049 raw signatures had been filed.
    On July 7, counties had reported 87,884 raw signatures had been filed.
    The number of signatures required is 63,593, and the last filing before the July 7 report was on June 30. That is, the proponents had filed 24,000 extra signatures by 3 days after the bill was signed.

    The bill was signed by Governor Brown on June 27.

    Supposedly after the counties have reported enough signatures (raw minus invalid) the SOS has 10 days to notify the counties, which triggers the first 30 WORKING-DAY period for processing by county officials including possible withdrawals. I can not find any such notice from SOS Padilla.

    There is a link to the lawsuit from this page:

    https://www.hjta.org/hot-topic/pr-howard-jarvis-files-lawsuit-over-legislatures-unconstitutional-attempt-to-shield-senator-from-recall/

    One reason for putting it in a “budget” bill, is that they are not subject to referendum.

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