Paisner v. Attorney General

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that attorney general has discretion to determine whether initiative would enact \law\ before certifying petition
• rejecting narrow construction of Attorney General’s role in certifying petitions as to proper form
• rejecting “narrow and technical” reading of “proper form” requirement while holding that a proposed measure is not in “proper form” if it is not in the form of a law
• implicitly assuming, without deciding, that proponents had standing to challenge Attorney General’s decision not to certify initiative petition
• Attorney General has duty not to certify initiative petitions not in the form of a law
• “the Attorney General has ... the duty, pursuant to his review of the ‘form’ of the initiative petition, to apply his legal judgment to the issue whether a law is proposed”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

28 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• People's Advocate, Inc. v. Superior Court
  California Court of Appeal· 1986-05-21· cited 63×
• Philadelphia II v. Gregoire
  Washington Supreme Court· 1996-02-29· cited 60×
• State Ex Rel. Brant v. Beermann
  Nebraska Supreme Court· 1984-06-15· cited 52×
• Commonwealth v. Leno
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1993-07-15· cited 38×
• Mazzone v. Attorney General
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2000-10-02· cited 33×
• In Re Initiative Petition No. 364
  Supreme Court of Oklahoma· 1996-12-10· cited 23×
• Alliance, AFSCME/SEIU, AFL-CIO v. Secretary of Administration
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1992-08-13· cited 18×
• Abdow v. Attorney General
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2014-06-24· cited 18×
• Carney v. Attorney General
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2008-07-15· cited 17×
• Associated Industries v. Secretary of the Commonwealth
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1992-07-06· cited 12×
• Yankee Atomic Electric Co. v. Secretary of the Commonwealth
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1988-07-07· cited 11×
• Pineo v. Executive Council
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1992-02-24· cited 11×
• Hughes v. Speaker of New Hampshire House of Representatives
  Supreme Court of New Hampshire· 2005-06-02· cited 11×
• Dunn v. Attorney General
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2016-07-06· cited 10×
• Opinion of the Justices to the House of Representatives
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1996-07-01· cited 10×
• Powell v. Cole-Hersee Co.
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 1988-11-08· cited 8×
• Answer of the Justices to the Acting Governor
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1997-10-30· cited 7×
• Oberlies v. Attorney General
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2018-06-18· cited 5×
• Anderson v. Attorney General
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2018-06-18· cited 5×
• Opinion of the Justices to the Senate
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1986-06-12· cited 4×