Florida House of Representatives Opposes the “Energy Choice” Amendment

The House submits this brief in opposition to the proposed initiative because of the deleterious effect that it, like numerous other policy-centric initiative proposals, would have on both the scope of the Legislature’s power and the nature of the Constitution as a charter document.

The sponsor’s current effort at changing Florida’s Constitution, if allowed, would be an abuse of the initiative process set out in the text of Article XI. In two ways, the initiative exceeds the limited authority reserved in Article XI, section 3. First, the original meaning of that provision does not allow for initiative proposals that would add policy to the Constitution on matters that the Legislature has the authority to adopt as statutory law. Second, if the Court is not prepared to apply original meaning analysis to this provision, the initiative still fails under a singular function component of the single-subject analysis, because the proposed amendment would exercise the legislative power and at the same time give the judicial branch regulatory authority over the Legislature. Either way, the proposal should be kept off the ballot.

Read their full legal brief filed with the Florida Supreme Court here.