Citizens in Charge

There is great news in Kansas for citizen initiative rights:

A federal judge struck down as unconstitutional on Friday a part of a Kansas law that prohibits nonresidents from circulating petitions within the state.

U.S. District Judge Sam Crow ruled that the law violates the First Amendment and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Secretary of State Chris Biggs from enforcing it.

The order comes after a lawsuit filed in April by the Constitution Party of Kansas. Also named as plaintiffs are Curt Engelbrecht, a Wichita member, and Mark Pickens, an Arizona man who works as a paid political petition circulator.

The Kansas attorney general’s office had joined with the plaintiffs in asking that the statute be ruled unconstitutional - something Daniel Treuden, a Milwaukee attorney who represents the Constitution Party, called “the responsible thing to do.”

The group has challenged similar statutes elsewhere, he said, but there are still many states with laws banning nonresidents from circulating election-related petitions.

“I am not sure every legislator who passed this law was thinking badly or had any bad intent when they passed it,” Treuden said. “It is just that they violated the Constitution when they did it - whether that be innocently or not.”

It’s great to see this law get struck down in Kansas. Hopefully, it will eventually be struck down in every state where it exists. To read the rest of the article go here.