Supreme Court won’t reconsider police reform initiative decision
Aug 30, 2018, 1:20 PM
Initiative guru and political activist Tim Eyman speaks at a special city council meeting. (Seattle Channel)
(Seattle Channel)
The latest title that Tim Eyman introduces himself as is “initiative process protector.” He was behind a recent lawsuit that didn’t challenge an initiative, rather it argued against the way lawmakers handled it. Eyman won that lawsuit this week.
Initiative 940 supporters asked the court to reconsider. But on Thursday, the Washington State Supreme Court announced that its mind is made up. Initiative 940, and the issue of police reform, is headed to the November ballot.
“It’s obviously a huge relief,” Eyman told KIRO Radio. “This morning the state Supreme Court said we are going to stick with our original decision; we’re not going to change our minds; we are going to put only Initiative 940 on the ballot’ … and the big relief is that, still, a unanimous Supreme Court said that what the Legislature did was totally unconstitutional and hopefully they’ll never do it again to another initiative.”
RELATED: The confusing tale of I-940
I-940 would change state standards for charging police after officer-involved shootings and deadly force. The initiative originally got enough signatures to put it up for consideration, but lawmakers and supporters wanted to make amendments to make multiple parties happy. What followed was an unlikely alliance of reform activists and police advocates crafting a law to make those amendments. Lawmakers essentially passed a law that would alter an initiative before it was voted on. The way lawmakers implemented it ran afoul of the state constitution, according to the court.
Eyman is well-known around Washington state as an initiative activist, which is why he was so passionate about challenging the I-940 process in court.
“The initiative we are doing right now, it is the first initiative to the Legislature since this ruling and we are doing our $30 tab initiative,” Eyman said. “… if we get enough signatures by the end of the year, we are guaranteed to have a chance to vote on this by November 2019, and the Legislature is not going to be able to screw with it.”
“So from a personal standpoint, I’m incredibly relieved by the ruling that says when an initiative qualifies, it will also get a vote of the people and it’s never going to be changed by the Legislature,” he said.
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