Political-process doctrine

Political-process doctrine is a judicially created limit on the subject matter scope of ballot initiatives. This doctrine is limitation against misuse of ballot initiatives.

"Absent a compelling state interest, the Court held that the state 'may no more disadvantage any particular group by making it more difficult to enact legislation in its behalf than it may dilute any person's vote or give any group a smaller representation than another of comparable size.'" Valeria v. Davis, 307 F.3d 1036, 1039-40 (9th Cir. 2002) (quoting Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U.S. 385, 393 (1969)).

As summarized by a Comment (article) in the Harvard Law Review:

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The political-process doctrine, as enunciated in Hunter and Seattle, prohibits the state from imposing extra burdens — beyond those of the ordinary political process — on legislation benefiting minorities. In Hunter, the voters of Akron, Ohio, amended the city charter to overturn a fair housing ordinance and to require a referendum for any future ordinance prohibiting racial bias in real property transactions. In striking down the amendment, the Supreme Court applied strict scrutiny because the law “place[d] special burdens on racial minorities within the governmental process” by “disadvantag[ing] those who would benefit from laws barring racial, religious, or ancestral discriminations as against those who would bar other discriminations.” ... Seattle relied on Hunter to strike down a state constitutional amendment that prohibited desegregative busing absent a court order, thereby extinguishing the authority of local school boards to address de facto segregation. First, the amendment triggered Hunter by having “a racial focus”: it banned legislation that minorities may consider to be in their interest and that “inures primarily to [their] benefit.” Second, the amendment “work[ed] a reallocation of power” — also known as a political restructuring — “of the kind condemned in Hunter” by “remov[ing] the authority to address a racial problem — and only a racial problem — from the existing decisionmaking body, in such a way as to burden minority interests.”

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Essential Government Functions

An analogous doctrine in California is the "essential government" functions or services doctrine.

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we have found Measure F to be clearly beyond the power of the electorate and defective in these three major respects: It interferes with the essential government functions of fiscal planning and land use planning; it impermissibly interferes with administrative or executive acts; and it is unconstitutionally vague in its provisions, such that the County and its Board may reasonably be heard to complain that they would not be able to comply with it because of its alleged vagueness.

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Citizens for Jobs & the Econ. v. Cty. of Orange, 94 Cal. App. 4th 1311, 1324-25, 115 Cal. Rptr. 2d 90, 100 (2002).