Professor Feeney Comments on Initiative Process for CBS-13
Professor Floyd Feeney commented on California's initiative process for a news report on local television station CBS-13. The report, entitled "Lawmaking or Laughable?", notes that 99 initiatives - more than three times the number filed last year - are vying for the next state ballot and raises issues of whether California should tighten its rules regarding the initiative process.
"People who work in this business will tell you that if you want to qualify a ham sandwich, you could," Professor Feeney states. "Even if all the witnesses say this is a stupid idea or this is unconstitutional, it goes on the ballot anyway."
Floyd Feeney, the Homer G. and Ann Berryhill Angelo Professor of Law for International Legal and Communication Studies at the UC Davis School of Law, is an expert on the California initiative process. He served as legal adviser to the California Assembly Speaker's Commission on the California Initiative Process in 2000-2001 and is co-author of the 1992 book, "Improving the California Initiative Process: Options for Change." Feeney also specializes in criminal law and procedure.