Preserve Shorecliff Homeowners v. City of San Clemente

California has two statutes requiring that all circulators of referendum petitions be qualified to register to vote in the city whose ordinance is the object of the referendum—Elections Code section 9238, subdivision (c) and section 9209. In this case involving a challenge to signatures on a referendum petition obtained by a group seeking to have a referendum on an ordinance restricting second-story additions, the trial court:

—(a) found that section 9238, subdivision (c) (and, by implication, § 9209 as well) had indeed been violated, but

—(b) did not invalidate the petition, thus allowing the referendum election to go forward.

The anti-referendum group has appealed, arguing that by allowing the referendum to go forward, the trial court “voided” these statutes.

We affirm. It turns out that the trial court merely “voided” statutes that are unconstitutional anyway.

I. BACKGROUND

On July 26, 2006, the San Clemente City Council enacted an ordinance (Ordinance 1319) prohibiting second-story additions in a section of the city known as “Shorecliffs.” Opponents of the ordinance—we will call them “the pro-referendum group” —hired a professional signature gathering firm to…