Both loved and loathed, California’s ballot initiative process hit the century mark last year. Since 1911, the state’s adventure in direct democracy has netted more than 42 constitutional amendments and 64 state laws, leaving little doubt that initiative voters constitute a fourth, co-equal branch of California’s government. Property taxes, term limits, capital punishment, medical marijuana, gay marriage, stem cell research, environmental protection and other staples of law and policy that millions of Californians take for granted have come about through the initiative process.
But the fourth branch is still beholden to the third branch, at least for the moment, and in 2012, the California Supreme Court issued three decisions involving new ballot initiatives that could have extraordinary long-term consequences for the state over the coming years and decades.
