[EM] Initiatives

[Michael A. Schoenfield]

Yes, that responsibility for checking and determining the constitutionality
of an act was achieved early in the republic. I've forgotten the specific
case or the chief justice, but I believe that this responsibility was gained
while Andrew Jackson was president and it dealt with a national bank (30
years since I took constitutional law and I still remember this case) and
the court found in Jackson's favor and in so doing established the right of
determing the constitutionality of an act. Jackson was angry, but could do
nothing as he won the case, but lost the war.

Michael S.

Michael Schoenfield
Michael A. Schoenfield & Associates, Ltd.
2637 Mason Street
Madison, WI 53705-3709

(608) 238-6121 Voice
(608) 233-2507 Fax
maschoen at execpc.com E-Mail
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/maschoen/
----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel Davis <cicero13 at ufl.edu>
To: <election-methods-list at eskimo.com>
Sent: Friday, November 06, 1998 5:07 AM
Subject: Re: [EM] Initiatives


>    SIR:
>
>    As the writer of an initiative that garnered more signatures than
needed, and
>was thrown out by the judicial system for being "unconstitution",--well I
am
>still angry about that.
>
>    Does the judicial system have a right to throw out an initiative (with
valid
>signatures, following all regulations) because it feels it is
unconstitutional?
>
>
>
>dd
>
>New Democracy wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>>      There must be ways in which elected officials can be held
accountable.
>> One way is when they face re-election. Another way is recall. These two
are
>> not enough to make our lawmakers accountable. There are two other ways
that
>> need to be added before we will have the best accountability of our
>> lawmakers.
>>
>>      One is that the citizens should have the means to petition for a
>> referendum, so that the citizens can pass laws that the lawmakers refuse
to
>> pass or laws that the lawmakers are not allowed to pass. The second way
is
>> for the citizens to have the means by which they can change or veto any
>> measure that was passed by any one of their levels of government.
>>
>>      We the citizens must think of our elected officials as our
employees.
>> We have the right to correct our employees and the right to change any
>> decision they may have made. In most cases of disagreement we the people
>> would be more willing to change a decision of a lawmaker than to recall
the
>> lawmaker. We the people should have this option.
>>
>>      In regard to accountability, these two improvements in government
are
>> more important than proportional representation - more important than any
>> other election reform. Even before we gain full representation(PR) in our
>> voting for lawmakers, these two improvements will work very well by
>> themselves to give us accountability.
>>
>>      The voters of any currently existing district should be able to
>> petition to have a House measure put to a vote in their district. The
>> district vote could be taken before or after the House vote. If the
people
>> voted different than their representative, then one vote on the measure
in
>> the House has been changed. As more votes get changed from other
districts
>> the measure could lose enough votes to void the measure. Not all
districts
>> need to vote on the measure.
>>
>>      Proportional representation is good and I hope it is installed in my
>> country, but it will not give us the level of accountability that we
need.
>> The power to change the vote of the lawmakers has far more power to make
>> the lawmakers accountable. More so than re-election by proportional
>> representation or recall or the media and other forms of public scrutiny.
>>
>>      These two improvements are the first two principles of Direct
Democracy.
>>
>>      Maybe Direct Democracy should change its name to Accountable
Democracy.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Donald Davison
>>
>>      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>>      ///                 N E W    D E M O C R A C Y                ///
>>      \\\ Home of Citizen's Democracy   http://www.mich.com/~donald \\\
>>      /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>
>
>--
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