Christie v. Paulus, 292 Or. 344

Summary

The Oregon Supreme Court reviewed a challenge to a ballot title prepared by the Attorney General for a proposed initiative concerning the State Forestry Department. The court declined to substitute its judgment regarding the relative importance of the measure's restructuring and timber-management provisions and certified the Attorney General's ballot title.

Holdings

1. The court will not substitute its judgment for the Attorney General's concerning the relative importance of reorganizing the Department of Forestry and placing a specified timber-sale policy into law when reasonable minds can differ about that relative importance.
2. The Attorney General's statement that the measure requires sustained-yield management of state timber was a correct statement; petitioners' alternative characterization that the measure changes sustained-yield policy could imply, inaccurately, that it changes an existing statutory policy.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Attorney General's ballot title was insufficient or unfair under ORS 250.085 because it allegedly distorted the proposed measure or placed undue emphasis on the sustained-yield timber-sale provision.
2. Whether the court should replace the Attorney General's ballot title with petitioners' proposed alternative based on the relative importance and sequence of the measure's provisions.
3. Whether the Attorney General's statement that the measure requires sustained-yield management of state timber was accurate.

Disposition

other