Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)

Citation: Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)
Parent Document: Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 2025-12-18
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10761039/cal-apartment-assn-v-city-of-pasadena/ ↗

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Amendment or repeal may be proposed by initiative or by the
governing body.” (Id., § 3, subd. (b), italics added.)
       Thus, the Constitution specifies that the initiative power
may be used to propose amendments but not revisions to county
or city charters. This distinction in the plain language of
subdivision (b) of article XI, section 3 is reinforced by
subdivision (c), which provides: “An election to determine
whether to draft or revise a charter and elect a charter
commission may be required by initiative or by the governing
body.” (Id., § 3, subd. (c), italics added.) In other words, although
there is no initiative power to propose a charter revision, the
electorate may compel an election to determine whether to revise
the charter through a charter commission or the governing body.
       The Constitution sets forth the same amendment-revision
dichotomy for changes to the Constitution as well. Section 1 of
article XVIII provides that the Legislature, with two-thirds of
each house concurring, may “propose an amendment or revision of
the Constitution,” and section 2 provides the Legislature may
“submit at a general election the question whether to call a
convention to revise the Constitution.” (Cal. Const., art. XVIII,
§§ 1-2, italics added.) Thus, the Legislature must initiate any
proposed revision to the Constitution being placed on the ballot.
(See Legislature of the State of California v. Weber (2024)
16 Cal.5th 237, 255-256 (Weber); Strauss v. Horton (2009)
46 Cal.4th 364, 414 (Strauss), abrogated on another ground in
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) 576 U.S. 644, 685.) In contrast,
section 3 of article XVIII provides that “[t]he electors may amend
the Constitution by initiative.” (Cal. Const., art. XVIII, § 3,
italics added.) And section 4 provides that any “proposed
amendment or revision shall be submitted to the electors,” with,

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