(The Center Square) – The Citizen Action Defense Fund, in a formal demand letter to Democratic leaders, argues the Washington State Legislature’s refusal to hold hearings on two citizen initiatives is unconstitutional because it violates a constitutional provision requiring initiatives to be prioritized over other legislative matters.
During a legislative preview with reporters last week, both Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, indicated they have no plans to hold hearings on two Let’s Go Washington-backed initiatives: one that would restore broad parental rights to access student information and materials, reversing legislative changes, and another banning transgender girls from girls’ sports, to protect female athletic competition.
“I’m certain that we will not be passing either of those initiatives,” Pedersen said. “They’ll be up to the voters to decide.”
That’s not good enough, according to the CADF, which argues that the Legislature’s refusal to hold hearings on citizen initiatives is unconstitutional because it violates a constitutional provision requiring initiatives to be prioritized over other legislative matters.
“As fellow lawyers, I would hope that both of you could recognize that the legal case here is easy to make,” CADF Executive Director and Counsel Jackson Maynard wrote in the Monday letter. “Article Two, § 1(a) of the state constitution requires that initiative measures ‘shall take precedence over all other measures in the legislature except appropriation bills and shall either be enacted or rejected without change.’ To date, the Legislature is currently scheduled to hear hundreds of non-appropriation bills in committees that do not have this special constitutional protection.”
Democratic leaders didn’t shy away from commenting on the demand letter at a Tuesday media event in Olympia.
“I think that isn’t what is required by the state Constitution,” Pedersen told The Center Square. “Jackson’s just not correct.”
He went on to say, “The citizens who signed them anticipated either the Legislature would take action or the people would get a chance to vote – and the people will get a chance to vote.”
Jinkins also addressed the demand letter.
“I would just say that those who assert it should, instead of cherry picking a word from the constitution, that they actually need to read the constitution,” she said. “The constitution itself anticipates the Legislature taking no action – that phrase is actually in the constitution – and sending it to the voters. Right? We have a long history of initiatives to the Legislature in this state – over 20 of them in the last 35 years – well over half of them never had hearings.”
The two initiatives have had their signatures submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office, but are not yet officially certified for having enough valid signatures. They are currently undergoing the signature verification process.
“By the way, that’s assuming that they’re certified,” Pedersen noted. “Because one of the things we’ve started to hear from the Secretary of State’s Office is that, notwithstanding the various precise-sounding numbers, that the campaign claimed to bring, the boxes that they had had mixed up petitions from each initiative mixed in the same box, and the Secretary of State’s Office had to spend the first two days just sorting the papers to figure out which one was which.”
Let’s Go Washington submitted more than 400,000 signatures for each of its two initiatives.
CADF is exploring a few options if no hearings are held, “including a lawsuit to the superior court or a writ of mandamus to the state Supreme Court that would effectively mandate that the Legislature follow the state constitution and give precedence to the bills by hearing them,” CADF Director of Communications and Operations Paige McElwrath emailed The Center Square.
She held out hope there would be hearings, noting that when the lawmakers “received pressure in 2024 after implying they wouldn’t hear initiatives for that legislative session, they ultimately did hear and pass three. We have no way of predicting how they will handle it this year, but we’re prepared to explore all legal avenues to ensure Washingtonians’ voices are heard.”
That year, three citizen initiatives – lifting restrictions on police vehicle pursuits, prohibiting income taxes, and establishing a “bill of rights” for parents of K-12 students – were approved by the Legislature and became law.
The Legislature modified the parents’ bill of rights initiative by passing House Bill 1296 in 2025, which Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law. Proponents of HB 1296 argue that it clarifies student rights, while critics – including Let’s Go Washington, which was behind the original parents’ bill of rights initiative – contend that it undermines the voter-approved parents’ bill of rights by removing parental access to sensitive medical and mental health records and limiting oversight.