Has the United States Supreme Court Killed California’s Initiative Process or Helped Check Its Abuses? 1-25-2014

Summary: This panel will focus on what effect the United States Supreme Court’s holding that initiative proponents lack standing to defend initiatives that the Governor and Attorney General will not defend will have on California’s initiative process in general. What are the pros and cons of the initiative process as a matter of public policy? Do government lawyers (and politicians) have an ethical obligation to defend laws they do not agree with, especially those passed via citizen initiative? -- Featuring: Prof. Rick Hasen, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California, Irvine; Mr. Dan Kolkey, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; Prof. Justin Levitt, Loyola Marymount University; and Prof. Kenneth Miller, Claremont McKenna, and Author, Direct Democracy and the Courts. Moderator: Hon. Sandra Ikuta, U. S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. Introduction: Mr. Leonard A. Leo, Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society.