Press Release: ACLU backs legislative proposals to safeguard constitutional rights

BOSTON—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLUM) reaffirmed its position that no one's fundamental rights and freedoms should be put to a popular vote.

Carol Rose, ACLUM's Executive Director, testified before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of legislative amendments to Article 48 of the Declaration of Rights. The legislative proposals would protect constitutional rights by not allowing them to be subject to a popular vote via the ballot initiative process, and by increasing the level of legislative support required before an initiative proposal to amend the constitution could move forward.

"These most fundamental of guarantees—to equality, freedom, and equal protection under the law—are among the most sacred of freedoms that we enjoy as residents of this Commonwealth. They are the cornerstones of individual liberty. Indeed, so fundamental are the rights to freedom and equality that they should not—must not—be subject to potential or actual evisceration as the result of an initiative petition to amend the constitution and a popular majority vote to constrict the rights of a minority, or even to cut minority rights off entirely," said Rose.

The ACLU of Massachusetts has long supported citizen ballot initiatives as a part of constitutional democracy—but only insofar as the process is used to protect individual and civil rights, not to eliminate them.

Article 48 already protects certain rights from the initiative process, such as the right to private property, trial by jury, and freedom of speech. Fundamental guarantees of liberty, freedom, and equal protection deserve the same protection.

The alternative is a disastrous free-for-all in which everyone's rights are insecure. Currently, just one quarter of the state Legislature has the power to send such a measure for a statewide vote. A majority could vote to overturn the rights of minorities on the basis of characteristics such as race, sex, age, sexual orientation, and others.

"[The] same prejudice that today would deny the most basic of human rights to one segment of our Commonwealth can be used tomorrow to deny the right to equality and freedom to another group, and another, and another… until, finally, any one of us, any group of us, could become the target for oppression by majority rule," said Rose.

"We should not permit this to happen on our watch."