A bill to give initiative proponents the right to defend voter-approved ballot measures against legal challenges was rejected by a Senate panel yesterday.
Senate Bill 5 targets an issue that has emerged in the court fight over Proposition 8, the 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last year. The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the bill on an 3-2 party-line vote.
Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gov. Jerry Brown, acting as attorney general, decided not to defend the measure in federal court, a position continued by Attorney General Kamala Harris. A federal appeals court considering the initiative proponents' request to overturn the federal judge's ruling has asked the state Supreme court to decide whether state law gives initiative sponsors standing to intervene in the case.
"California voters deserve to have their position defended when an initiative is challenged in court and the State refuses to defend it," GOP Sen. Tom Harman, author of the bill and a former primary candidate for attorney general, said in a statement. Harman introduced a similar bill in 2009 that also failed to make it through the Legislature.
Opponents, including representatives from gay-rights group Equality California and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, argued during yesterday's committee hearing that the proposed change would conflict with the court's existing power to decide who can intervene in a case. They also argued that law would undermine the constitutional responsibilities delegated to the state attorney general.
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