Citizens in Charge

Nebraska’s Appeals Court has ruled that an initiative that would make it illegal to lease or rent to an illegal alien and require anyone living in the city to obtain an occupancy permit from the police department does not violate the state’s single-subject rule. The court also held that it cannot rule on the constitutionality of the requirements of the measure until and unless the voters approve it.

The ruling in City of Fremont v. Kotas is in keeping with precedent both within Nebraska and in other states. Thirteen states have a requirement that initiative measures contain a “single subject.” State courts have typically interpreted this as the Nebraska court did:

“A [measure] which embraces several subjects, all of which are germane to the general subject of the amendment, will, under such requirement, be upheld as valid and may be submitted to the people as a single proposition.”

In this case, the court said that, while the measure addressed both housing and employment,  the subject of the petition was the regulation of illegal aliens and therefore did not violate the rule.

Fremont also challenged that the requirements of the measure were themselves unconstitutional. Here courts have typically held as Nebraska did: the substance of a law cannot be challenged before it actually becomes a law. Some of you may remember the California Supreme Court making a similar ruling in a challenge of the controversial Proposition 8 (2008), which rescinded the right of homosexual Californians to marry. That measure passed, and a challenge to the law is currently tied up in federal court.

You can read the decision in Fremont here.