Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
"The Commonwealth Activist Network"
18 Tremont Street #608 * Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------

*** CLT&G Update ***
Friday, July 18, 1997

Term Limits: Resurrected from the dead?

Greetings activists:

Apparently Dorothea Vitrac and LIMITS II will attempt another shot at a Term Limits constitutional amendment, starting with another petition drive planned for the fall.

And apparently the arrayed forces of the Beacon Hill Cabal already are forming ranks, preparing against the threat to their perceived Divine Right to infinite perpetuity as "public servants," circling their wagons well in advance.

If sufficient signatures are again collected, the Boston Herald this morning reports: "A constitutional convention -- a meeting of both the House and Senate -- would have to be held in May of 1998, and the measure would have to be approved by 50 legislators in that year and another 50 legislators in 1999.

"But Secretary of State William Galvin, who runs state elections, said the ballot question may have to be delayed until 2002 since the state constitution prohibits voters from considering 'substantially similar' measures within four years."

And guess who gets to make *that* determination? Attorney General Scott Harshbarger! But Dorothea can always then appeal his decision to -- you guessed it -- the esteemed Supreme Judicial Kangaroo Court!

Isn't it refreshing to see that the Beacon Hill Cabal, led by the Secretary of Darkness, at least is aware that a constitution exists in Massachusetts -- even if it's only a case of situational constitutionalism, recognized and referenced only when it can be conveniently used *against* the people.

At a State House news conference yesterday, Dorothea said her strategy is to get the signatures then pressure the next governor -- Paul Cellucci, Joe Kennedy, Scott Harshbarger, or Joe Malone (again serving as LIMITS II's honorary chairman and alongside Dorothea at yesterday's news conference) -- to keep the Legislature assembled in Constitutional Convention and in session until they take a vote up or down on her proposed amendment.

Background: In the 1992 session, the proposed LIMITS constitutional amendment for Term Limits died in the Legislature when Senate President William Bulger moved it to the end of the ConCon calendar, where it took only one vote of objection, which was always available, to prevent it from being moved up again. LIMITS appealed to the state Supreme Judicial Kangaroo Court, which in turn refused to order the Legislature to take the required vote. In January of 1993, before the 1992 session calendar officially ran out, Governor Weld ordered the Legislature back to vote on the proposed amendment but Bulger adjourned the session without taking the constitutionally mandated vote.

In the recent ruling that overturned the 1994 Term Limits/Ballot Access statute approved by the voters, Chief Justice Herbert P. Wilkins, writing for the unanimous majority, stated:

"We suggested in LIMITS v. President of the Senate, supra at 35, that, when the Legislature fails to act in joint session on a proposed initiative to amend the Constitution, and thus frustrates the purpose of art. 48,'the only remedy may come from the influence of public opinion, expressed ultimately at the ballot box.' This statement may have had a Delphic quality. The suggestion was not to propose use of the statutory initiative approach but rather to point to the power of the people to elect a sufficient number of legislators *WHO WOULD NOT DEFY THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION* [my emphasis] so that a joint session would be required to perform its duty."

Chip Ford
Co-director