Ballot initiative litigation

Ballot initiative litigation consists of legal challenges to the legality of specific ballot initiatives, also called ballot measures. The challenges can be based on procedure or substance.

Substantive challenges

There are four substantive defects to sweeping ballot initiatives:

1. they violate the Guarantee Clause of the [[U.S. Constitution.
2. they may constitute fundamental revisions to state constitutions, rather than mere amendments, as held in California
3. they may disenfranchise a segment of the population, as held unconstitutional in Romer v. Evans (invaliding a Colorado ballot initiative enacted on November 3, 1992).
4. they should not implicitly overturn other constitutional provisions without doing so expressly and specifically.

See also

• Buckley, Secretary of State of Colorado v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, No. 97–930