In 2021, I was approached about support signing on to the legislative term limits measure. I declined to sign-on at the time because I thought it made more sense to allow for 16-years however a legislator chooses rather than 8 years in each chamber.
The measure committee did take one of my suggestions: lock-out the legislature from being able to amend the term limits passed by the voters with a specific prohibition on the legislature’s ability to even propose changes, and require that all changes originate with another citizen petition.
This language was borrowed from the same concept that I have pushed for years as far as locking the legislature out of proposing changes to Article III which is titled “Powers Reserved to the People”.
It is my contention that the only way to truly “reserve” these powers is to exempt them from legislative alteration in the first place - such as what happened in 2020 and in 2024 with Measure 2 in each of those years.
This language of this clause was actually drafted by Legislative Council in 2019, as a legislator had Legislative Council draft it at my request:
So, in 2019, the Legislative Council thought this language would appropriate for the constitution.
Within the context of Article 15 of the state constitution, here is what this language currently looks like:
Now, legislators want to put this issue back to the voters because they think the voters don’t know what they voted on in 2022 (see video at the top of this page).
When SCR 4008 was being heard in the Senate committee, I spoke to this particular issue, outlining its history.
While I think that the legislature putting this measure on the ballot is unconstitutional and violates Article 15 Section 4 of the State Constitution, I also think it is a good thing to find out if citizens can protect certain sections or entire articles of the constitution by locking out legislators ability to propose changes.
Assuming this issue goes to court, it will determine whether there is a way to truly and genuinely protect “The Powers Reserved To The People” by limiting the legislature’s ability to place changes on the ballot.
That’s why I say, the fight over the term limits measure isn’t really about term limits - it’s about whether The Powers Reserved To The People can truly be protected from the legislature.
The legislature talks a lot about how “sacred” the constitution when they propose changes to Article III to make it harder for citizens to change the constitution.
They claim that is the motivation behind HCR 3003 and SCR 4007 - both of which will likely be on the ballot at the same time as SCR 4008.
But they do not actually believe that when they overtly violate a provision of the constitution simply to provoke a private lawsuit.
A lawsuit that will also end up costing taxpayers money to defend against in court.
So when you hear this resolution/measure referred to as the “Term Limits” Measure know that this is really the “Does The Constitution Mean What It Says?" Measure.
At the end of the day: if the citizens cannot pass constitutional provisions to limit the power of the legislature, then does the constitution even matter at all?
And is that a road the legislature really wants to go down:
Making their own voters think they don’t care what the constitution says?
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