Kristin Perry, et al v. Arnold Schwarzenegger, et al

Filing 356

Filed (ECF) Appellants Martin F. Gutierrez, Dennis Hollingsworth, Mark A. Jansson, Gail J. Knight and ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8, A Project of California Renewal Correspondence: Courtesy Copy of Defendant-Intervenors and Appellants' Reply to Amicus Briefs filed in the Supreme Court of California, Case No. S189476. Date of service: 05/09/2011 [7745459] (CJC)

No. S189476
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
En Banc

KRISTIN M. PERRY et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents,
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, Plaintiff, Intervenor and
Respondent;
v.
EDMUND G. BROWN, as Governor, etc. et al., Defendants;
DENNIS HOLLINGSWORTH, et al., Defendants, Intervenors and Appellants.
On Request from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for
Answer to Certified Questions of California Law
DEFENDANT-INTERVENORS AND APPELLANTS’
REPLY TO AMICUS BRIEFS

Andrew P. Pugno
LAW OFFICES OF ANDREW P. PUGNO
101 Parkshore Drive, Suite 100
Folsom, California 95630
[phone]; [phone] Fax
Brian W. Raum*
James A. Campbell*
ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND
15100 North 90th Street
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
[phone]; [phone] Fax
*Admitted Pro Hac Vice

Charles J. Cooper*
David H. Thompson*
Howard C. Nielson, Jr.*
Nicole J. Moss*
Peter A. Patterson*
COOPER AND KIRK, PLLC
1523 New Hampshire Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
[phone]; [phone] Fax
*Admitted Pro Hac Vice

Attorneys for Defendant-Intervenors and Appellants Hollingsworth, Knight,
Gutierrez, Jansson, and ProtectMarriage.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES……………………………………...….ii
ARGUMENT…………………………………………………………3
I. Official Proponents Have Authority under California Law To
Defend Their Initiatives as Agents of the People in Lieu
of Public Officials Who Refuse To Do So. ...……………...3
A. Allowing Official Proponents To Vindicate the People’s
Interest in the Validity of Initiatives Preserves the
Sovereign People’s Rightful Control
of Their Government. …………….............................4
B.

Well-Settled California Case Law Upholds the
Authority of Official Proponents To Represent the
People’s Interest in the Validity of Initiatives. ……10

C.

Reaffirming That Official Proponents May Defend
Their Initiatives Would Not Infringe the Attorney
General’s Authority Or Violate Separation of Powers
Principles…………………………………………...16

II. Official Proponents Have a Personal, Particularized
Interest in the Validity of Their Initiatives..........................26

i

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Cases

Page

Bank of United States v. Deveaux (1809) 5 Cranch 61……..…... …..11
Brown Shoe Co. v. United States (1962) 370 U.S. 294……………...11
Building Industry Association v. Camarillo
(1986) 41 Cal.3d 810…………………………….4, 6, 7, 14, 15, 22
Citizens for Jobs & the Economy v. County of Orange
(1988) 94 Cal.App.4th 1311……………………………..12, 21, 24
City & County of San Francisco v. State
(2005) 128 Cal.App.4th 1030……………………………… 15, 16
Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights v. A Free Pregnancy
Center (1991) 229 Cal.App.3d 633………………………………18
Common Cause of California v. Board of Supervisors
(1989) 49 Cal.3d 432…………………………………………….19
Community Health Association v. Board of Supervisors
(1983) 146 Cal.App.3d 990……………………………...12, 21, 24
Connerly v. State Personnel Board
(2006) 37 Cal.4th 1169…………………………..………26, 27, 28
In re Forsythe (1982) 91 N.J. 141, 450 A.2d 499…………...11, 13, 23
In re Marriage Cases (2008) 43 Cal.4th 757………………………..16
Independent Energy Producers Association v. McPherson
(2006) 38 Cal.4th 1020……………………………………………7
INS v. Chadha (1983) 462 U.S. 919………………………………...24
Karcher v. May (1987) 484 U.S. 72……………………..10, 11, 13, 23
Legislature v. Deukmejian (1983) 34 Cal.3d 658, 663……………...22
Marsh v. Mountain Zephyr, Inc. (1996) 43 Cal.App.4th 289……….12
ii

Martin v. Smith (1959) 176 Cal.App.2d 115………………………3, 5
Paulson v. Abdelnour (2006) 145 Cal.App.4th 400…………….14, 25
People v. City of South Lake Tahoe (E.D. Cal. 1978)
466 F.Supp. 527………………………………………………….19
Simac Design Inc. v. Alciati (1979) 92 Cal.App.3d 146…………….14
Sonoma County Nuclear Free Zone ’86 v. Superior Court
(1987) 189 Cal.App.3d 167……………………………………...27
State Board of Education v. Levit (1959) 52 Cal.2d 441……………20
Strauss v. Horton (2009) 46 Cal.4th 364……………………3, 5, 7, 15
Constitutional and Legislative Materials
Cal. Const., art II, § 1………………………………………………2, 6
Cal. Const., art. II, § 8(a) …………………………………………….5
Cal. Const., art. III, § 3.5(c) ………………………………………….1
Cal. Const., art. V, § 13……………………………………………..18
Gov. Code § 12512…………………………………………………...1
N.J. Const., art. III, ¶ 1………………………………………………23
Other
Bob Egelko, Brown Debate Comment Could Help Prop. 8
Sponsors, S.F. Chronicle (Oct. 14, 2010), available
at http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/14/BADL1FS9TE.DTL........................2
Brown-Whitman Debate: Proposition 8 at 2:05, available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-FoWZQh_w............................2

iii

The briefs of the Attorney General and other amicus curiae
supporting the Plaintiffs and the City and County of San Francisco
(collectively “Respondents”) add little of consequence to the
arguments raised by Respondents that we have already refuted.
Respondents’ amici do, however, bring the extreme nature of
Respondents’ position into sharp focus.
First, the Attorney General’s brief makes clear that she claims
the authority not only to refuse to defend, either in the trial court or on
appeal, the People’s interest in a duly enacted initiative, but also the
power to prevent anyone else from defending the People’s interest by
appealing a trial court decision invalidating that initiative. And she
takes this position despite her statutory duty to “defend all causes to
which the State, or any State officer is a party in his or her official
capacity,” Gov. Code § 12512, without regard to the provision of the
California Constitution requiring state agencies to enforce state law
unless it has been invalidated by an appellate court, Cal. Const., art.
III, § 3.5(c), and in direct opposition to the position taken by her
predecessor both in and out of court.1 It is thus evident that the

1

See App. 76 [Attorney General Brown’s argument that this
case presented “an actual controversy between the Plaintiffs and San
Francisco, on one hand, and the Proponents on the other,” and thus
1

Attorney General now seeks not only discretion to refuse to defend an
initiative she believes (wrongly, in Proponents’ view) to violate the
Federal Constitution, but also the authority to “effectively veto” that
initiative by preventing any appeal of a trial court decision
invalidating it. (Certification Order 11.) In a State where “[a]ll
political power is inherent in the people,” Cal. Const., art II, § 1, this
Court should not countenance such a sweeping claim of power to
thwart the sovereign People’s will.
Second, these new submissions explicitly confirm what was
only implicit in Respondent’s arguments—that the opposition to
allowing official proponents to defend their initiatives when public
officials refuse to do so is rooted largely in hostility to the initiative
power itself. The League of Women Voters, for example, discusses at

“satisfie[d] the constitutional ‘case or controversy’ limitation on
federal jurisdiction found in Article III, section 2 of the
Constitution.”]; Bob Egelko, Brown Debate Comment Could Help
Prop. 8 Sponsors, S.F. Chronicle (Oct. 14, 2010), available
at http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/14/BADL1FS9TE.DTL [“In defending
his refusal to appeal a judge's order overturning California's ban on
same-sex marriage, Attorney General Jerry Brown said the sponsors
of the ballot measure can appeal it themselves”]; Brown-Whitman
Debate: Proposition 8 at 2:05, available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-FoWZQh_w [Attorney
General Brown’s statement that he was not appealing the trial court’s
judgment invalidating Proposition 8 “because it can be appealed by
the parties”].  
2

length the “problems inherent in the initiative process,” League Br. 7,
and argues that permitting initiative proponents to defend the People’s
interest in those measures “would compound the problems wrought by
a runaway initiative process,” id. at p. 12. And amici John Eisenberg
and Professor Laurie Levenson argue that because “the validity of the
initiative process itself is subject to serious constitutional doubt,”
Proponents’ “argument for authority to appeal, based on the purported
importance of the initiative process, cannot be sustained.” (Eisenberg
Br. 3-5.) This Court, however, has repeatedly recognized “the
sovereign people’s initiative power” as “one of the most precious
rights of [California’s] democratic process.” (Strauss v. Horton
(2009) 46 Cal.4th 364, 453 [quotation marks omitted].) And under
this Court’s well-settled precedents, hostility to the right of initiative
provides no basis for a legal rule that would “improperly annul that
right.” (Martin v. Smith (1959) 176 Cal.App.2d 115, 117.)
ARGUMENT
I.

Official Proponents Have Authority under California Law
To Defend Their Initiatives as Agents of the People in Lieu
of Public Officials Who Refuse To Do So.
Respondents’ amici cannot deny that the California courts have

repeatedly allowed official proponents of initiatives to defend those
3

measures when they are challenged in litigation—especially when, as
here, the public officials having the “duty to defend” them “might not
do so with vigor” (or at all). (Building Industry Association v.
Camarillo (1986) 41 Cal.3d 810, 822.) Nor can they deny that this
Court has provided a clear and persuasive explanation for this
practice: “Permitting intervention by the initiative proponents under
these circumstances . . . serve[s] to guard the people’s right to exercise
initiative power, a right that must be jealously defended by the
courts.” (Ibid.) As Proponents have demonstrated, it plainly follows
from these and other authorities that official proponents have
authority under state law to represent the People’s interest in
defending the validity of initiatives.
A.

Allowing Official Proponents To Vindicate the
People’s Interest in the Validity of Initiatives
Preserves the Sovereign People’s Rightful Control of
Their Government.

As this Court recognized in Building Industry Association and
Proponents have explained at length, see Prop. Br. 18-24, permitting
official proponents to defend initiatives when public officials refuse to
do so vindicates the People’s initiative power, a power adopted “in
light of the theory that all power of government ultimately resides in
the people,” Building Industry Association, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 821,
4

and intended to ensure “the people’s rightful control over their
government,” Strauss, supra, 46 Cal.4th at p. 421. A contrary rule, by
contrast, would permit “elected officials to nullify” both “proponents’
efforts to ‘propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution’ ” and
“the People’s right ‘to adopt or reject’ such propositions,”
Certification Order 11-12 [quoting Cal. Const., art. II, § 8(a)], and
would conflict with the courts’ “solemn duty jealously to guard the
sovereign people’s initiative power,” Strauss, supra, 46 Cal.4th at p.
453, “and to prevent any action which would improperly annul that
right,” Martin, supra, 176 Cal.App.2d at p. 117.
Although the Attorney General concedes that “the courts have a
duty to guard the initiative as one of the most precious rights of our
democratic process,” AG Br. 13, she argues that permitting official
proponents to defend their initiatives in lieu of public officials who
refuse to do so does not serve to vindicate this precious right. Her
arguments, however, all lack merit.
First, in arguing that official Proponents cannot represent the
People’s interest in defending an initiative, the Attorney General
explains that “the initiative power itself belongs to the electors as a
whole, not to the individual proponents of a particular initiative
5

measure.” (AG Br. 10.) True enough. But it is equally true, despite
the Attorney General’s suggestion that the certified question be
reformulated to address whether the official proponents of an
initiative may “assert the interest of state officials in the initiative’s
validity,” id. at p. 9, fn. 4 (emphasis added), that neither the initiative
power nor the People’s interest in an initiative’s validity belongs to
state officials—not even an Attorney General who is politically
opposed to the initiative. The real question in this case is not to whom
the initiative power or the People’s interest in an initiative belongs—
the California Constitution and this Court’s cases leave no room
whatsoever for doubt or debate on that score, see Cal. Const., art. II, §
1; Building Industry Association, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 821—but who
(if anyone) may assert that interest when public officials refuse to do
so. And as Proponents have demonstrated, this Court’s precedents
and the well settled practice of permitting official proponents to
intervene to defend their initiatives provides a clear answer to this
question as well.
The Attorney General also argues that permitting official
proponents to defend initiatives is not necessary to vindicate the
initiative power because “the initiative power is fully executed (and
6

thus ‘vindicated’) when an initiative that has qualified for the ballot is
adopted or rejected by the voters.” (AG Br. 15; see also Equality Cal.
Br. 10-11 [similar].) But as this court has explained, “[p]ermitting
intervention by the initiative proponents” when public officials
charged with defending an initiative “may not do so with vigor”
serves to “guard the people’s right to exercise initiative power, a right
that must be jealously defended by the courts.” (Building Industry
Association, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 822.) Not only is the Attorney
General’s crabbed interpretation of the “precious” initiative power
directly contrary to this specific analysis, it also contravenes the more
general rules that the initiative power must be preserved “to the fullest
tenable measure of spirit as well as letter,” Strauss, supra, 46 Cal.4th
at p. 453, and that “the Constitution’s initiative and referendum
provisions should be liberally construed to maintain maximum power
in the people,” Independent Energy Producers Association v.
McPherson (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1020, 1032. And as the Ninth Circuit
explained, because neither the Governor, the Attorney General, nor
any other public official has “veto power over initiatives,” it is
doubtful, to say the least, that such officials “may, consistent with the
California Constitution, achieve through a refusal to litigate what
7

[they] may not do directly: effectively veto the initiative by refusing
to defend it or appeal a judgment invalidating it if no one else—
including the initiative’s proponents—is qualified to do so.”
(Certification Order 11.)2
Arguing that “[d]rafters of certain initiatives have specifically
included provisions regarding post-enactment enforcement when
submitting their initiatives to the voters,” Equality California suggests
that if the People wish official proponents to defend an initiative when
public officials refuse to do so they should say so expressly. (Equality
Cal. Br. 15.) Allowing official proponents to defend their initiative
absent express language addressing this question, Equality California
maintains, would impermissibly require the courts to “add to [an
initiative] or rewrite it to conform to some assumed intent not

2

The League argues that if public officials refuse to defend an
initiative, the People’s proper recourse is to recall those officials or to
seek a writ of mandamus compelling them to defend. (See League Br.
12-13.) As we have demonstrated, however, even assuming new
officials could be elected in time to defend against pending litigation,
the People should not be required to resort to a second election merely
to obtain a defense of a law they have already voted to enact. (See
Prop. Reply Br. 4.) And as Respondents and the Attorney General
have argued at length, see Pl. Br. 9-11; SF Br. 10-16; AG Br. 17-20,
the courts will not coerce a public official to defend a law. Indeed,
this Court has already denied a petition for writ of mandamus seeking
to compel the Attorney General to defend Proposition 8. (Beckley v.
Schwarzenegger (Sept. 8, 2010) No. S186072.)  
8

apparent from th[e] language.” (Id. at p. 14 [alterations in Equality
Cal. Br.].)
As Proponents have already demonstrated, however, initiative
proponents and the People are entitled to rely on the assumption that
public officials will fulfill their duty to defend the laws that the People
have enacted. (See Prop. Reply Br. 6-7.) They are also entitled to
rely on the numerous California cases consistently allowing official
proponents to defend their initiatives, including on those rare
occasions when public officials refuse to do so. It does not “add to”
or “rewrite” an initiative to interpret it in light of these basic and wellsettled background principles. To the contrary, it would be
unreasonable to require official proponents and the People to
anticipate that public officials not only will refuse to discharge their
duty to defend an initiative the People have duly enacted, but also will
disavow the host of cases allowing official proponents to defend their
initiatives. Indeed, like San Francisco, Equality California fails to
identify a single instance where official proponents and the People

9

have seen the need to include language expressly addressing the
failure of public officials to defend an initiative.3
B.

Well-Settled California Case Law Upholds the
Authority of Official Proponents To Represent the
People’s Interest in the Validity of Initiatives.

As Proponents have demonstrated, the numerous precedents
permitting official proponents to intervene to defend their initiatives
demonstrate that official proponents have authority under state law to
represent the People’s interest in the validity of initiatives when public
officials refuse to defend those measures. (See Prop. Br. 24-30; Prop.
Reply Br. 8-16.) Indeed, the United States Supreme Court looked to
just such authority in concluding that leaders of the New Jersey
legislature “had authority under state law to represent the State’s
interests” by defending, both in federal trial court and on appeal, a
state statute that “neither the Attorney General nor the named
defendants would defend.” (Karcher v. May (1987) 484 U.S. 72, 75,
82.)

3

Equality California cites an initiative allowing citizens to sue
the State to enforce an initiative and another initiative creating a
redistricting commission and granting that commission exclusive
authority to defend its redistricting plans. (See Equality Cal. Br. 1516.) Neither initiative addressed the question of who would defend
the initiative itself if it were challenged in litigation and public
officials refused to defend it. 
10

Respondents’ amici dismiss the numerous authorities
permitting intervention by official proponents on the ground that these
decisions did not specifically address the propriety or basis of
intervention. (See AG Br. 21-22, fn. 9; Equality Cal. Br. 6-7;
California Faith Br. 28-29.) But as proponents have demonstrated,
see Prop. Reply Br. 10, the same was true of In re Forsythe (1982) 91
N.J. 141, 450 A.2d 499, the state law decision the Karcher Court
found controlling on the question of New Jersey’s legislative leaders’
authority to defend the State’s interest in the validity of a statute in
lieu of the Attorney General and government defendants who refused
to do so. (See Karcher, supra, 484 U.S. at p. 82.)
Furthermore, this Court plainly should not “disregard the
implication of an exercise of judicial authority assumed to be proper”
so frequently over so many years. (Brown Shoe Co. v. United States
(1962) 370 U.S. 294, 307.) To the contrary, these decisions are
entitled to “much weight, as they show that [doubts regarding the
propriety of intervention by official proponents] neither occurred to
the bar or the bench; and that the common understanding of intelligent
men is in favour” of the position urged by Proponents here. (Bank of

11

United States v. Deveaux (1809) 5 Cranch 61, 88 [Marshall, C. J.].)4
And in all events, this Court has provided a clear explanation of the
basis and propriety of intervention by official proponents in Building
Industry Association, and the numerous cases allowing such
intervention surely must be understood in light of that decision.5
Equality California complains, however, that the numerous
decisions permitting official proponents to intervene to defend
initiatives do not specifically and expressly address the authority of
official proponents (1) “to appeal a judgment invalidating an
initiative” (2) “as representatives of the State” (3) “in federal court.”
(Equality Cal. Br. 2.) But precisely the same could be said of the New
Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in In re Forsythe—a decision that

4

In at least some of the cases where official proponents were
permitted to intervene to defend their initiatives, intervention was
essential to the courts’ jurisdiction to decide the cases before them.
(Compare, e.g., Citizens for Jobs & the Economy v. County of Orange
(1988) 94 Cal.App.4th 1311, 1323 [deciding appeal brought by
proponents, not government defendant], and Community Health
Association v. Board of Supervisors (1983) 146 Cal.App.3d 990, 993
[same], with, e.g., Marsh v. Mountain Zephyr, Inc. (1996) 43
Cal.App.4th 289, 295 [“standing to appeal is ‘jurisdictional and
therefore cannot be waived’ ”].) 
5

Respondents’ amici persist in dismissing Building Industry
Association’s discussion of intervention as dictum, see, e.g., AG Br.
23; Equality Cal. Br. 9, but we have demonstrated otherwise, see
Prop. Br. 18-19. Respondents’ amici’s silence in response to our
analysis speaks volumes. 
12

affirmed a judgment upholding a challenged statute defended by both
the intervenors and the Attorney General, did not discuss the interests
represented by the legislative interveners, and noted only that they had
been allowed to intervene in state court proceedings. (See supra, 91
N.J. at pp. 143-44.) Yet the United States Supreme Court found this
authority sufficient to establish that New Jersey’s legislative leaders
had standing to represent the People’s interest in the validity of their
laws both in federal trial court and on appeal. (See Karcher, supra,
484 U.S. at p. 82.) Indeed, as Proponents have demonstrated,
California law goes much further than In re Forsythe, permitting
official proponents to intervene to defend an initiative when public
officials refuse to do so, allowing official proponents to appeal a
judgment invalidating an initiative when government officials do not,6

6

Arguing that California law generally permits intervenors to
appeal adverse decisions, the Attorney General attempts to discount
the significance of the cases where official proponents and
organizations directly involved in drafting and sponsoring initiatives
have been allowed to appeal adverse decisions relating to those
measures even though government defendants choose not to appeal.
(See AG Br. 8, fn. 3.) But as Proponents have explained, California
law imposes strict standards for intervention, see Prop. Reply Br. 3536, and, as discussed more fully below, sharply distinguishes between
official proponents (and organizations directly involved in drafting
and sponsoring initiatives) who are uniformly allowed to intervene to
defend initiatives, on the one hand, and other individuals and
organizations who are generally not allowed to intervene (except
13

and expressly grounding intervention by official proponents in the
need to protect the sovereign People’s initiative power. (See Prop. Br.
25-28; Prop. Reply Br. 9-10; Building Industry Association, supra, 41
Cal.3d at p. 822.)
The Attorney General also argues that “[i]n post-adoption
challenges to the validity of initiatives,” California treats official
proponents no differently from other supporters of an initiative. (See
AG Br. 22.) But we have already demonstrated that this is false. (See
Prop. Br. 28-30; Prop. Reply Br. 12-13.) True, California decisions
have not always distinguished between official proponents and
organizations directly involved in drafting and sponsoring an
initiative, see Prop. Reply Br. 12, and have also sometimes permitted
organizations supporting an initiative to intervene alongside official
proponents, see Prop. Br. 29, fn. 6. But the courts have drawn a sharp
distinction between official proponents, on the one hand, and
organizations or individuals who played no direct role in sponsoring

alongside official proponents), on the other hand. Further, it is wellsettled that official proponents and organizations directly involved in
drafting and sponsoring initiatives independently satisfy the
requirements for appealing a judgment invalidating an initiative,
regardless of whether they intervened in the trial court. (See Simac
Design Inc. v. Alciati (1979) 92 Cal.App.3d 146, 152, 153; Paulson v.
Abdelnour (2006) 145 Cal.App.4th 400, 414, 416-18.) 
14

or drafting the initiative, on the other hand. (See, e.g., Strauss, supra,
46 Cal.4th at pp. 398-99; App. 50; City & County of San Francisco v.
State (2005) 128 Cal.App.4th 1030, 1038.) With respect to the
former, this Court has explained that where those charged with
defending an initiative “might not do so with vigor,” California courts
“in most instances should allow intervention by the proponents of an
initiative. To fail to do so may well be an abuse of discretion.”
(Building Industry Association, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 822 [rejecting
argument premised on the assumption that “the proponents of [an]
initiative have no guarantee of being permitted to intervene in the
action, a matter which is discretionary with the trial court”].) And,
indeed, neither Respondents nor their amici have yet identified any
case in which official proponents were denied intervention to defend
an initiative they had sponsored, let alone any case denying
intervention when public officials refused to defend the initiative.7

7

Remarkably, the Attorney General cites this Court’s treatment
of the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund in the
Marriage Cases as somehow undermining the authority of official
proponents to vindicate the People’s interest in defending an initiative
when public officials refuse to do so. (See AG Br. 24-25.) But as
Proponents have demonstrated and Plaintiffs were forced to concede
at oral argument before the Ninth Circuit, the Fund was not the
official proponent of Proposition 22. (See Prop. Reply Br. 10-13.)
Indeed, as the Attorney General elsewhere concedes, the Fund “was
15

Nor have they identified any case in which any party other than an
official proponent or an organization directly involved in drafting and
sponsoring an initiative was permitted to intervene to offer the sole
defense of that measure.8
C.

Reaffirming That Official Proponents May Defend
Their Initiatives Would Not Infringe the Attorney
General’s Authority Or Violate Separation of Powers
Principles.

1. The Attorney General argues at length that her litigation
duties are discretionary and that neither the citizens nor the courts can
compel her to defend a law if she chooses not to do so. (See AG Br.
17-19; see also Equality Cal. Br. 11 [arguing that “State officials are
under no obligation to appeal every adverse decision or even to

not even created until one year after voters passed the initiative.”
(AG Br. 22, fn. 10 [emphasis in AG’s brief].) And contrary to the
Attorney General’s claim that this Court did not distinguish between
official proponents and the Fund in the Marriage Cases, see AG Br.
25, fn. 11, this Court expressly cited the portion of the court of
appeals decision in City & County of San Francisco that drew
precisely that distinction, see In re Marriage Cases (2008) 43 Cal.4th
757, 790, fn. 8 (citing City & County of San Francisco v. State (2005)
128 Cal.App.4th 1030, 1038).  
8

In addition, the Attorney General argues that official
proponents have been permitted to intervene in post-adoption
challenges to the validity of initiatives only “to represent their own
interests.” (AG Br. 23.) But as we have already demonstrated, this
proposition is not supported by the cases permitting official
proponents to intervene to defend their initiatives and is directly
contrary to this Court’s explanation of this practice in Building
Industry Association. (See Prop. Reply Br. 8-9.)  
16

defend every state enactment].) This argument, whatever its merits, is
a red herring. Official proponents’ authority to represent the People’s
interest in the validity of initiatives that public officials (including the
Attorney General) refuse to defend does not depend upon the
proposition that the failure to defend violates these officials’ duty, or
that their duty is judicially enforceable. Rather, it flows from the
constitutional principle that the People are entitled to a defense of the
initiatives they have enacted, without regard to the legality or fault of
their public official’s actions. Further, as we have already explained,
see Prop. Reply Br. 20-22, allowing official proponents to defend an
initiative and to appeal a judgment invalidating it does not force the
Attorney General (or any other public official) to defend that
initiative, to notice an appeal, or to make any other litigation decision
contrary to her wishes. The real question in this case is not whether
the Attorney General may refuse to defend an initiative. Rather, it is
whether she may effectively veto the People’s enactment by refusing
to defend it and barring anyone else from doing so.
2. Contrary to the Attorney General’s contention, see AG Br.
16, article V, section 13 of the California Constitution certainly does
not grant the Attorney General such arbitrary and sweeping authority.
17

As relevant here, that provision provides that the Attorney General
“shall be the chief law officer of the State” and that “[i]t shall be the
duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are
uniformly and adequately enforced.” (Cal. Const., art. V, § 13.)
As we have explained, this provision does not explicitly address
the Attorney General’s authority or duty to defend state laws, let alone
state that no one else may do so. (See Prop. Reply Br. 16-17.) And
even with respect to “enforc[ing]” the law, it is well settled that the
Attorney General’s authority is not exclusive. (Id. at pp. 17-18.) To
the contrary, as the court of appeal has explained, “Although there are
within the executive branch of the government offices and institutions
(exemplified by the Attorney General) whose function it is to
represent the general public . . . and to ensure proper enforcement [of
the laws], for various reasons the burden of enforcement is not always
adequately carried out by those officers and institutions, rendering
some sort of private action imperative.” (Committee to Defend
Reproductive Rights v. A Free Pregnancy Center (1991) 229
Cal.App.3d 633, 640.)
Thus, for example, California generally permits any citizen to
sue to enforce the law and, even where a statute expressly confers
18

enforcement authority upon the Attorney General, this Court will not
interpret that authority to bar citizens from suing to enforce the law
“[i]n the absence of either an express limitation on citizen standing or
any indication of legislative intent to confer exclusive powers on the
Attorney General.” (Common Cause of California v. Board of
Supervisors (1989) 49 Cal.3d 432, 440.)9 Thus, the settled principle
that the “conferral of enforcement power on [the] Attorney General
[is] not determinative of [the] exclusivity question under California
law” plainly applies to article V, section 13, no less than to statutory
grants of authority. (Id. at pp. 440-41 [citing People v. City of South
Lake Tahoe (E.D. Cal. 1978) 466 F.Supp. 527].) And while
California imposes stricter limits on which private citizens may
defend a statute, see Prop. Reply Br. 18, there is surely no basis for
reading the Attorney General’s implicit constitutional authority to

9

Citing two cases that predate California’s adoption of the
initiative process, the Attorney General argues that “the Attorney
General must give consent to a private person to sue in the name of
the people.” (AG Br. 17.) But regardless of whether this rule applies
in the narrow context of relator suits such as those cited by the
Attorney General, it does not apply to other contexts in which
California permits private citizens to represent the People’s interest in
litigation.  
19

defend state laws to be exclusive when her express enforcement
authority is not.10
3. Nor do any of the statutes cited by the Attorney General, see
AG Br. 17, confer upon her the authority to nullify an initiative by
preventing anyone from defending it. We have already demonstrated
that neither section 12511 nor section 12512 grants such authority, see
Prop. Reply Br. 22-23, and the additional statute cited by the Attorney
General likewise does not purport to grant the Attorney General such
authority. And even if the legislature wished to confer such authority
upon the Attorney General it could not, of course, statutorily override
the People’s constitutional initiative power.
4. The Attorney General asserts the policy benefits of assigning
the decision whether to defend an initiative to an elected public
official rather than private citizens. (See AG Br. 19-20.) But

10

State Board of Education v. Levit (1959) 52 Cal.2d 441—a
decision addressing the State Board of Education’s constitutional
power to select textbooks that says nothing about litigation authority
(exclusive or otherwise)—is plainly inapposite. Though this case
states that powers which are “specially conferred by the constitution”
upon an officer may not be reassigned, id. at pp. 461-62, the
Constitution does not specifically confer upon the Attorney General
exclusive authority to defend (or even to enforce) the law, as
demonstrated above. Were it otherwise, the various statutes and
judicial doctrines permitting persons other than the Attorney General
to enforce the laws would surely be unconstitutional. 
20

essentially the same argument could be raised against the initiative
process itself, which was deliberately designed to allow private
citizens—the People—to assert their rightful control over their elected
officials.11
5. The Attorney General also contends that the initiative power
is strictly legislative and thus, she argues, does not include the
authority to defend an initiative when executive officers refuse to do
so. (See AG Br. 13-16.) We have already refuted this argument. (See
Prop. Reply Br. 23-26.) Further, the authorities cited by the Attorney
General hold only that the form and content of an initiative are subject
to certain constitutional requirements, such as the single subject rule,
and, more generally, that “in the enactment of statutes the

11

The League of Women Voters likewise recites a list of
untoward consequences that would allegedly flow from reaffirming
official proponents’ authority to represent the People’s interest in the
validity of initiatives. (See League Br. 7-8, 10-11.) The League’s dire
predictions essentially track those of Respondents, which we have
already refuted. (See Prop. Reply Br. 25-29.) And the County of
Santa Clara, et al., fret that reaffirming that the official proponents of
statewide initiatives may represent the People’s interest in defending
those measures when state officials refuse to do so might lead to a
holding that the official proponents of local initiatives may likewise
defend those measures in lieu of local officials who fail to do so. (See
Counties Br. 9-11.) But that is, of course, already the law. (See, e.g.,
Citizens for Jobs & the Economy, supra, 94 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1316,
1323; Community Health Association, supra, 146 Cal.App.3d at pp.
991-92.) 
21

constitutional limitations that bind the Legislature apply with equal
force to the people’s reserved power of initiative.” (Legislature v.
Deukmejian (1983) 34 Cal.3d 658, 663.) These cases do not even
address the question of who may represent the People’s interest in an
initiative that executive officers refuse to defend, let alone hold that
official proponents may not do so.
The Attorney General nevertheless argues that the efforts of
anyone outside the Executive Branch to exercise and vindicate the
initiative power—again, a power premised on the principle that “all
government power ultimately resides in the people,” Building Industry
Association, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 821 (emphasis added)—must be
limited to actions that could also be taken by the Legislature. But
even if this is so, it does not follow that official proponents cannot
represent the People’s interest in defending an initiative.
The Attorney General has found no authority holding that
California’s Legislature or individual legislators whom it has
authorized to act on its behalf may defend a statute when executive
officers refuse to do so. (AG Br. 16, fn. 5.) But neither she,
Respondents, nor any of Respondents’ other amici have identified any
authority holding the contrary, either. (See also Prop. Reply Br. 25.)
22

And as we have demonstrated, see Prop. Reply Br. 25, the Legislature
has been permitted to defend its own successful ballot propositions
and even executive enforcement positions, so it is highly implausible
that California’s Constitution would bar the Legislature from
defending its own enactments if executive officers refused to do so.
Indeed, although Equality California cites various decisions
from other jurisdictions addressing legislative standing in a variety of
contexts, see Equality Cal. Br. 18-20, it does not identify a single
decision holding that a legislature or members it has authorized to act
on its behalf may not defend its own enactment when Executive
officials refuse to do so. And it is plain that there is no separation of
powers problem in permitting such a defense. (Compare, e.g., N.J.
Const., art. III, ¶ 1 [mandating separation of powers among the
legislative, executive, and judicial branches], with Karcher, supra,
484 U.S. at p. 82 [citing In re Forsythe, supra, 91 N.J. at p. 144]
[recognizing that New Jersey law permits the legislature, through its
officers, to defend its enactments].) Indeed, the United States
Supreme Court has “long held that Congress is the proper party to
defend the validity of a statute when an agency of government, as a
defendant charged with enforcing the statute, agrees with plaintiffs
23

that the statute is inapplicable or unconstitutional.” (INS v. Chadha
(1983) 462 U.S. 919, 940; see also id. at p. 939 [holding that “from
the time of Congress’ formal intervention,” Congress was “both a
proper party to defend the constitutionality” of a statute the Executive
believed was unconstitutional “and a proper petitioner” in the
Supreme Court].)
6. Finally, the Attorney General’s own concessions fatally
undermine her arguments that permitting official proponents to
intervene to defend their initiatives would either undermine her
authority or exceed the scope of the initiative power under the
California Constitution. Indeed, she concedes that the courts of this
State (including this Court) have uniformly permitted the proponents
of an initiative measure to intervene to defend against actions brought
in the courts of this State challenging the validity of the initiative
measure that they sponsored. (See AG Br. 22.) And she concedes the
validity and authority of “California cases in which initiative
proponents who were permitted to intervene then appealed the
judgment without benefit of being joined by a government appellant
….” (Id. at p. 22, fn. 9 [referencing Community Health Association v.
Board of Supervisors, (1983) 146 Cal.App.3d 990, Citizens for Jobs &
24

the Economy v. County of Orange, (2002) 94 Cal.App.4th 1311, and
Paulson v. Abdelnour, (2006) 145 Cal.App.4th 400].) Nevertheless,
the Attorney General argues, this authority does not confer a
substantive right to appeal upon initiative proponents, but rather
merely reflects a procedural right of appeal granted to intervenors in
the California courts that does extend to the federal courts.
Thus, the Attorney General’s true objection is not to permitting
initiative sponsors to defend against challenges to the validity of
initiative measures and to appeal adverse judgments invalidating the
challenged initiatives when the Executive refuses to do so. As noted,
she concedes that the courts of this State uniformly permit such
appeals. Rather, the Attorney General objects to this result only in the
context of federal court challenges to initiative measures. But none of
the Attorney General’s authorities or arguments concerning her
purportedly exclusive authority or the supposedly strict limits on the
powers of initiative proponents turns on whether a challenge to an
initiative is brought in state court or in federal court. Simply stated,
by conceding that initiative sponsors may defend against challenges
brought in state court to the validity of initiative measures and appeal
adverse judgments invalidating the challenged initiatives when the
25

Executive refuses to do so, the Attorney General has effectively
conceded that permitting the same result when the challenge is
brought in federal court will not exceed the limits of proponents’
powers or improperly encroach upon the litigation authority of the
Attorney General or any other executive official.
II.

Official Proponents Have a Personal, Particularized
Interest in the Validity of Their Initiatives.
California law clearly defines a “real party in interest” as a

“person or entity whose interest will be directly affected by the
proceeding.” (Connerly v. State Personnel Board (2006) 37 Cal.4th
1169, 1178.) And that interest must not only be “direct,” but also “a
‘special interest to be served or some particular right to be preserved
or protected over and above the interest held in common with the
public at large.’ ” (Id. at p. 1179.) As Proponents have demonstrated,
the official proponents of initiatives have been named repeatedly as
real parties in interest in California cases challenging the validity of
initiatives. (See Prop. Br. 33-36.) In addition, this Court has squarely
held both that the official proponent of a ballot initiative “clearly
me[ets] that definition [of a real party in interest] when it c[omes] to
litigation involving that initiative,” and that groups having only “a
particular ideological or policy focus that motivates them to
26

participate in certain litigation” do not. (Connerly, supra, 37 Cal.4th
at p. 1179.) It follows ineluctably that official proponents have a
particularized interest in the validity of their initiatives under
California law that entitles them to defend those initiatives when they
are challenged in litigation.
Respondents’ amici find little to say in response to this analysis,
and what little they do say is unpersuasive. Noting that Connerly’s
discussion of official proponents’ interest in litigation relied on
Sonoma County Nuclear Free Zone ’86 v. Superior Court (1987) 189
Cal.App.3d 167, a case that began as pre-election litigation involving
an initiative, California Faith for Equality argues that official
proponents do not possess any “post-enactment interest in an enacted
initiative,” but only certain “pre-enactment procedural rights.”
(California Faith Br. 21.)12 Connerly, however, drew no such
distinction. Rather, it spoke broadly of the interest of “the proponent
of a ballot initiative” in “litigation involving that initiative.” (Supra,
37 Cal.4th at p. 1179.) Indeed, though Connerly involved postenactment litigation, this Court distinguished Sonoma County not on

12

As we have explained, the court’s action in deferring decision
until after the election in Sonoma County itself demonstrates that
official proponents’ interest in their initiatives does not disappear
post-election. (See Prop. Reply Br. 36-37.) 
27

the ground that it involved pre-enactment rather than post-enactment
litigation, but rather on the ground that the organization whose interest
was in question was not an official proponent and therefore had only a
“policy interest in the present case” that was “no different in kind
from that of the typical amicus curiae and no different in substance
from like-minded members of the general public.” (Ibid.) Any doubt
on this score is removed by the facts that official proponents have
been allowed to defend their initiatives as real parties in interest in
post-enactment litigation no less than pre-enactment litigation and that
courts have drawn no distinction in official proponents’ status and
right to defend based on the timing of the litigation. (See Prop. Br.
33-34; Prop. Reply Br. 36-37.)13
Indeed, the Attorney General concedes, as she must, that
“proponents are sometimes identified as real parties in interest in post                                                            
13

Echoing San Francisco, Equality California seeks to
distinguish between official proponents’ interest in the “processes and
procedures relating to a ballot measure’s appearance on the ballot”
and its “substantive validity,” arguing that “[i]nitiative proponents
have a particularized interest in the former, but not the latter.”
(Equality Cal. Br. 21-22.) But as we have demonstrated, see Prop.
Reply Br. 38-39, and Equality California is ultimately forced to
concede, see Equality Cal. Br. 22-23, fn. 4, this distinction finds no
more support in the cases than the temporal distinction urged by
California Faith.

28

adoption challenges” to initiatives and that “proponents have defended
initiatives in cases when public officials decide that it is not in the
public interest to do so.” (AG Br. 26.) But she nevertheless claims,
without citing any supporting authority, that these facts do not
“demonstrat[e] that California law elevates proponents’ interest in the
validity of an initiative enactment to a substantive right superior to
that of any other informed supporter.” (AG Br. 26-27.) This naked
assertion simply cannot be squared with the strict definition of “real
party in interest” under California law, the cases repeatedly permitting
official proponents to defend their initiatives as “real parties in
interest,” or this Court’s explicit holding that official proponents
satisfy the definition of real parties in interest in litigation involving
their initiatives but that organizations or individuals having only a
“policy interest” in such litigation do not. Nor does the Attorney
General (or any other amicus or party to this litigation) identify any
case holding that official proponents may not defend their initiatives
as real parties in interest or permitting anyone other than an official
proponent or an organization directly involved in drafting and
sponsoring an initiative to offer the sole defense of an initiative as a
real party in interest.
29

*

*

*

At bottom, Respondents’ amici, like Respondents themselves,
are able to offer no persuasive response to the repeated practice of
California courts allowing official proponents to defend their
initiatives both as intervenors and as real parties in interest or to the
clear statements from this Court and the courts of appeals explaining
this practice and distinguishing official proponents from those not
directly involved in drafting and sponsoring initiatives. For the
reasons set forth above, as well as in Proponents’ Opening and Reply
Briefs, this Court should answer the certified question in the
affirmative.

30

PROOF OF SERVICE
At the time of service I was over 18 years of age and not a party to this action. My
business address is 1523 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036.
On May 9, 2011, I served the following document:
Defendant-Intervenors and Appellants’ Reply to Amicus Briefs.
I served the documents on the person or persons below, as follows:
Claude F. Kolm
Office of the Alameda County
Counsel
1221 Oak Street, Suite 450
Oakland, CA 94612
Attorney for Defendant Patrick
O’Connell
Judy Welch Whitehurst
Office of the County Counsel
500 West Temple Street, 6th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Attorney for Defendant Dean C.
Logan
Andrew W. Stroud
Kenneth C. Mennemeier
Mennemeier Glassman & Stroud LLP
980 9th Street #1700
Sacramento, CA 95814
Attorneys for Mark Horton, and
Linette Scott

Tamar Pachter
Daniel Powell
Office of the Attorney General
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite
11000
San Francisco, CA 94102
Attorneys for Defendants Edmund G.
Brown, Jr. and Kamala D. Harris
Dennis J. Herrera
Therese Stewart
Vince Chhabria
Mollie Mindes Lee
Office of the City Attorney
City Hall, Room 234
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Erin Bernstein
Danny Chou
Ronald P. Flynn
Christine Van Aken
Office of the City Attorney
1390 Market Street, 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
Attorneys for Plaintiff-Respondent
City and County of San Francisco

Terry L Thompson
Attorney at Law
P O Box 1346
Alamo, CA 94507
Attorney for Defendant-Intervenor
William Tam Hak-Shing
Matthew McGill
Amir C. Tayrani
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
1050 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
David Boies
Rosanne C. Baxter
Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, LLP
333 Main Street
Armonk, NY 10504
Ethan Douglas Dettmer
Sarah Elizabeth Piepmeier
Enrique Antonio Monagas
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
555 Mission Street, Suite 3000
San Francisco, CA 94105
Joshua Irwin Schiller
Richard Jason Bettan
Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP
575 Lexington Ave., 5th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Jeremy Michael Goldman
Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP
1999 Harrison St #900
Oakland, CA 94612

Theodore J. Boutrous
Christopher Dean Dusseault
Theano Evangelis Kapur
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
333 S. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Theodore H. Uno
Boies, Schiller & Flexner, LLP
2435 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, FL 33020
Attorneys for Plaintiffs-Respondents
Kristin M. Perry, Sandra B. Stier,
Paul T. Katami, and Jeffrey J.
Zarrillo
Eric Alan Isaacson
Robbins Geller Rudman & Down
LLP
655 W. Broadway, Suite 1900
San Diego, CA 92101
Attorney for Amici Curiae California
Faith for Equality, et al.
Miguel Alberto Marquez
County of Santa Clara
Office of the City Counsel
70 W. Hedding Street
San Jose, CA 95110
Attorney for Amici Curiae County of
Santa Clara, et al.

James Joseph Lynch, Jr.
Attorney at Law
PO Box 215802
Sacramento, CA 95821
Attorney for Amicus Curiae Margie
Reilly
Harold E. Johnson
Sharon L. Browne
Damien M. Schiff
Pacific Legal Foundation
3900 Lennane Drive, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95834
Attorneys for Amici Curiae Pacific
Legal Foundation, et al.
Laura W. Brill
Nicholas F. Daum
Clifford S. Davidson
Ashlee R. Lynn
Kendall Brill & Klieger LLP
10100 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite
1725
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Attorneys for Amici Curiae Jon B.
Eisenberg and Professor Laurie L.
Levenson

John C. Eastman
Karen J. Lugo
Center for Constitutional
Jurisprudence
c/o Chapman University School of
Law
One University Drive
Orange, CA 92866
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Center
for Constitutional Jurisprudence
Cynthia E. Tobisman
Robin Meadow
Greines Martin Stein & Richland LLP
5900 Wilshire Boulevard, 12th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae League
of Women Voters of California
Kevin T. Snider
Pacific Justice Institute
212 9th Street, Suite 208
Oakland, CA 94607
Attorney for Amicus Curiae Rev.
Joshua Beckley

Julie B. Axelrod
Judicial Watch, Inc.
425 Third Street, SW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20024

David C. Codell
Albert Giang
Alastair J. Agcaoili
Caldwell Leslie & Proctor, PC
1000 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Attorney for Amicus Curiae Judicial
Watch, Inc.

Attorneys for Amici Curiae Equality
California, et al.