Yes On 25, Citizens for an On-Time Budget v. Superior Court

The Attorney General of the State of California, and Yes on 25, Citizens for an On-Time Budget, seek a peremptory writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to vacate its judgment entered on August 5, 2010, insofar as it compels revision of the ballot title and summary and the ballot label for Proposition 25 prepared by the Attorney General. 1

Respondent court mled these ballot materials are misleading because the language, “RETAINS TWO-THIRDS VOTE REQUIREMENT FOR TAXES,” suggests that passage of Proposition 25 is necessary to continue the current constitutional provision requiring a two-thirds vote to raise taxes. (See *1449 Cal. Const., art. XIII A, § 3.) Accordingly, the court directed that the language be deleted from both the ballot title and summary and the ballot label.

The writ petitions were filed in this court on Friday, August 6, 2010, and the Secretary of State has indicated that Monday, August 9, 2010, is the deadline for transmitting copy for the ballot pamphlet to the State Printer. Thus, to preserve our jurisdiction, we stayed submission of the ballot materials to the State Printer pending further order of this court. We also informed the…