{"id":8793,"date":"2022-06-03T14:03:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T21:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793"},"modified":"2022-06-03T14:03:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T21:03:40","slug":"cpc-files-amicus-brief-to-protect-californians-right-to-the-ballot-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793","title":{"rendered":"CPC files amicus brief to protect Californians\u2019 right to the ballot initiative."},"content":{"rendered":"

This was originally published by California Policy Center\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The California Policy Center filed an amicus brief this week in\u00a0Castellanos v. California,\u00a0<\/em>the high-profile case with the highest of stakes: Californians\u2019 right to pass ballot initiatives.<\/p>\n

For more than a century, California\u2019s ballot initiative process has given voters a direct say in the policies they want to improve their state. Now this right is under attack by California\u2019s unions.<\/p>\n

At issue in the\u00a0Castellanos<\/em>\u00a0case is Assembly Bill 5, introduced by former Assemblywoman (and longtime union toady) Lorena Gonzalez, that in 2019 changed state labor law to force companies to transform independent contractors into regular employees. Though aimed directly at rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, AB 5 wreaked havoc everywhere freelancers work \u2014 the music industry, construction, graphic design, photography.<\/p>\n

AB 5\u2019s backers, primarily union leaders and their allies in the state legislature, said gig workers would get health insurance, rest breaks, and other benefits afforded to employees under California state law. Those union leaders did not mention that those drivers would lose what\u2019s arguably the most attractive feature in their bargain with Uber and Lyft: the freedom to determine their work schedules.<\/p>\n

The only winners when AB 5 passed were the union leaders who saw the new law as an opportunity to\u00a0expand\u00a0their potential market by unionizing the gig economy. Independent contractors begged for relief.<\/p>\n

In response, Uber and Lyft launched Proposition 22, a 2020 state ballot initiative that proposed a narrow carveout in AB 5 for app-based drivers. Some 10 million Californians helped pass the initiative, allowing gig drivers to remain classified as independent contractors.<\/p>\n

AB 5\u2019s proponents, including the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU), filed suit immediately\u00a0in\u00a0Castellanos v. California.\u00a0<\/em>And, following a trial last summer, Alameda County Judge Frank Roesch declared Prop 22 unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

In his ruling, Roesch affirmed the union\u2019s two arguments. First, that Prop 22\u00a0violated a technical provision in the drafting of a ballot measure, the \u201csingle-subject\u201d rule. But Roesch also bought the union\u2019s argument that Californians cannot have a direct say on policy matters over which the state legislature has declared itself sovereign. One of those policy matters, Roesch concluded, is anything affecting workers\u2019 compensation.<\/p>\n

That conclusion should frighten Californians of all political stripes because California\u2019s legislature has claimed sovereignty over virtually every aspect of life in the state. Roesch\u2019s logic leaves little room for the public to exercise its right to check the legislature through referendum and initiative.<\/p>\n

Now, Roesch\u2019s ruling will be tested in a California appeals court. CPC filed an amicus brief this week detailing the flaws in Roesch\u2019s ruling and urging the appellate court to reverse his decision and restore the people\u2019s will on Proposition 22.<\/p>\n

The eagerness to eviscerate Californian\u2019s right to the ballot initiative reveals the audacity of California\u2019s government unions\u2014like SEIU, who loved the state\u2019s initiative process when it suited their aims. Over decades, SEIU and its government union allies have dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into initiatives to expand government, raise taxes, limit personal freedom, and crush business. Now, SEIU wants to kill the ballot initiative because they lost on Prop 22 and see the initiative process as a tool too often used by the union\u2019s opponents.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the point: the ballot initiative allows the people to push back against those in power who ignore the will of the people. It\u2019s because progressive politicians\u00a0\u2014 and their\u00a0union backers \u2014 currently dominate the state legislature that the unions see ballot initiatives as a threat.<\/p>\n

As CPC explains in its amicus brief: \u201cThe initiative process itself has no partisan valence, and that the minority political party seeks it out more often than the dominant party demonstrates only that the steam valve is functioning as intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, California\u2019s initiative, referendum and recall laws are a product of the Progressive era. After the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, the Central Pacific railroad quickly became the state\u2019s biggest employer and private landowner. Central Pacific\u00a0routinely abused its power to charge Californians outrageous rates and blackmail towns and cities into paying the railroad taxpayer subsidies. But the people\u2019s frustrations were ignored by politicians who were cozy with Central Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cA wave of populist anger carried a set of progressive Republicans into state office in the 1910 elections\u201d who, as CPC describes in its brief,\u00a0crafted California\u2019s initiative power as \u201can insurance policy that would ensure the people retained a voice in state government long after that generation of politicians had left office\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we best arm the people to protect themselves hereafter?\u201d asked Governor Hiram Johnson in his 1911 inaugural address. Johnson said the initiative process would \u201cgive to the people the means by which\u2026they may prevent the misuse of the power temporarily centralized in the Legislature\u2026[a] precautionary measure which will ever be present before weak officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson and his compatriots believed the ballot initiative\u00a0would \u201cplace in the hands of the people the means by which they may protect themselves.\u201d 111 years later, the people\u2019s ability to do so cannot be stripped by California\u2019s government unions or an overzealous judge.\u00a0California Policy Center is now in the process of forming Democracy for All, a coalition of pro-democracy groups working to protect the right of California voters to a ballot initiative. To learn more about Democracy for All and join the coalition, please visit\u00a0DemocracyForAllCA.org<\/a>. CPC\u2019s amicus brief can be read in full\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was originally published by California Policy Center\u00a0 The California Policy Center filed an amicus brief this week in\u00a0Castellanos v. California,\u00a0the high-profile case with the highest of stakes: Californians\u2019 right to pass ballot initiatives. For more than a century, California\u2019s ballot initiative process has given voters a direct say in the policies they want to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nCPC files amicus brief to protect Californians\u2019 right to the ballot initiative. - San Diego News Desk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CPC files amicus brief to protect Californians\u2019 right to the ballot initiative. - San Diego News Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was originally published by California Policy Center\u00a0 The California Policy Center filed an amicus brief this week in\u00a0Castellanos v. California,\u00a0the high-profile case with the highest of stakes: Californians\u2019 right to pass ballot initiatives. For more than a century, California\u2019s ballot initiative process has given voters a direct say in the policies they want to...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"San Diego News Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-03T21:03:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/California-Policy-Center.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Logo-SanDiegoNewsDesk-Article.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Logo-SanDiegoNewsDesk-Article.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"San Diego News Desk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"description\":\"Your Source for News in San Diego\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/California-Policy-Center.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/California-Policy-Center.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793\",\"name\":\"CPC files amicus brief to protect Californians\\u2019 right to the ballot initiative. - San Diego News Desk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-03T21:03:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-03T21:03:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CPC files amicus brief to protect Californians\\u2019 right to the ballot initiative.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5bed4fc07270caa9fa05a8b26be4751\"},\"headline\":\"CPC files amicus brief to protect Californians\\u2019 right to the ballot initiative.\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-03T21:03:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-03T21:03:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":923,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=8793#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/California-Policy-Center.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5bed4fc07270caa9fa05a8b26be4751\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05062ed7eb31bfe5ee9233a235e7d2e2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05062ed7eb31bfe5ee9233a235e7d2e2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"San Diego News Desk\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}