Opinion of the Justices to the Senate

Summary

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court advised that an initiative petition concerning legislative stipends and committee performance requirements proposed internal legislative rules rather than a law. Because article 48 authorizes initiatives proposing laws or constitutional amendments, the court concluded that the petition was not in proper form for submission to the voters and did not reach the Senate's second question concerning legislative rulemaking authority.

Holdings

1. The petition proposed a rule rather than a law because its principal purpose was to regulate the internal operations and procedures of the Senate and House of Representatives through conditions on legislative compensation and duties imposed on legislative clerks.
2. The court did not reach the second question because the petition failed at the threshold to propose a law and therefore was not in proper form for submission to the people.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the initiative petition proposed a law within the meaning of article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution or instead improperly proposed a rule governing the Legislature's internal procedures.
2. Whether, if the petition proposed a law, its enactment would intrude on the Senate's constitutional authority to determine its own rules of proceedings.

Disposition

other