Legal Question in Constitutional Law in California

Re: Right of citizens to call for a popular vote

As you surely must be aware, California voters may vote on ballot initiatives to change a state law or the state Constitution. Normally you would need lots of money to gather the required millions of petition signatures for your proposal, and assuming the initiative gets enough signatures o qualify for the ballot, you would then need to buy TV ads to persuade people to vote for it. There is presently no such right at the federal level.

Re: Right of citizens to call for a popular vote

I agree with Mr. Stone. Keep in mind that statutes enacted by initiative, just like those enacted by the legislature and governor, must comply with the state and federal constitutions. Even if your effort to have abortion outlawed were to succeed, the law would be struck down as unconstitutional. (With two new justices on the U.S. Supreme Court it is possible that the law would ultimately be upheld, but I doubt this would happen.)

Also, the initiative process cannot be used to force the impeachment of a sitting official. Recent history shows that they *can* be used to force a recall election, but that is a different procedure.