In re Initiative Petition No. 365, State Question No. 687 (2002)
From Judgepedia
Justice Watt concurred in the majority opinion upholding the legal and numerical sufficiency of an initiative petition that sought to ban cock-fighting in the state of Oklahoma.
ISSUE:
In this case, the court considered whether (1) certain signatures should count; (2) a sufficient number of signatures were gathered when accounting for signatures collected by non "qualified electors; and (3) the petition was constitutional."
HOLDING:
As to numerical sufficiency, the Court struck a number of signatures under the theory that they were not collected by "qualified electors," and upheld the validity of many other challenged signatures. The court declined to declare the ballot initiative unconstitutional, holding that "[g]enerally we decline to declare an initiative invalid prior to a vote of the people except when there is a clear or manifest showing of unconstitutionality."
REASONING:
In arriving at that decision, the court reasoned as follows:
- (1) The court established a rule that "[w]hen an opponent attacks signatures that appear on an initiative petition on the basis its signers were not registered voters, a presumption arises that the persons are registered voters."
- (2) The court outright refused to consider the possibility of invalidating the initiative, noting that it would only do so "when there is a clear and manifest showing of unconstitutionality."[1]
POTENTIAL FLAWS IN THE COURT'S REASONING:
For a discussion of potential flaws in the court's reasoning, see this link to the Discussion page or click on the tab at the top of the page.
