Equi v. Olcott

• Decision Date: 29 July 1913
• Citation: 133 P. 775,66 Or. 213
• Parties: EQUI et al. v. OLCOTT, Secretary of State.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

133 P. 775

66 Or. 213

EQUI et al. v. OLCOTT, Secretary of State.

Supreme Court of Oregon

July 29, 1913

In Banc. Original petition for mandamus by Marie D. Equi and another against Ben W. Olcott, as Secretary of State, to compel the filing of a petition for the initiative and its submission to the people. Demurrer to alternative writ sustained.

W.S. U'Ren, of Oregon City, for plaintiffs.

A.M Crawford, Atty. Gen., for defendant.

BURNETT J.

By the act of February 28, 1913 (Laws 1913, p. 620), the Legislative Assembly passed a law, providing that: "There shall be held a special election in the several voting precincts of this state on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1913. All measures passed by the Twenty-Seventh Legislative Assembly of the state of Oregon upon which the referendum may be invoked shall be submitted to the people for their approval or rejection at such special election." The plaintiffs have sued out of this court an original alternative writ of mandamus, requiring the defendant, as Secretary of State, to forthwith receive and file in his office an initiative petition, therein described for a "Woman Wageworker's Eight-Hour Law," and commanding him to submit the proposed law to the legal voters of the state of Oregon for their approval or rejection at the special election above mentioned, or show cause to the contrary. The defendant has demurred generally to the writ.

Two questions are involved. The principal one pressed upon our attention is whether or not the proposed law shall be submitted to the electorate at the special election mentioned. The other is whether or not the Secretary shall be compelled to file the petition on the showing made in the writ.

Affecting the first question, section 1, article 4, of the Oregon Constitution says that: "The legislative authority of the state shall be vested in a legislative assembly, consisting of a senate and house of representatives, but the people reserve to themselves power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution and to enact or reject the same at the polls, independent of the legislative assembly. *** The first power reserved by the people is the initiative, and not more than eight per cent of the legal voters shall be required to propose any measure by such petition, and every such petition shall include the full text of the measure so proposed. Initiative petitions shall be filed with the Secretary of State not less than four months before the election at which they are to be voted upon. *** Petitions and orders for the initiative and for the referendum shall be filed with the Secretary of State, and, in submitting the same to the people, he and all other officers shall be guided by the general laws and the act submitting this amendment, until legislation shall be especially provided therefor."

Legislation other than the act of February 28, 1913, has been provided by general laws for the guidance of public officers in relation to the initiative process, and these laws have been in operation for a number of years. The act authorizing a special election to be held in November, 1913, mentioned above, does not contain any allusion to initiative measures. It does not purport to repeal or amend any previous legislation on the subject of the initiative. It is manifest that the Secretary of State, as directed by the people in its Const...