Washington’s Constitution does not treat voters as spectators — it recognizes them as lawmakers. Yet legislative leadership is acting as if one of the people’s most powerful tools — the initiative process — is optional.
It is not.
Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins have publicly stated they have no plans to hold hearings on two voter initiatives, IL26-001 and IL26-638, and will send them directly to the November ballot. Those were signed by nearly half a million Washingtonians and certified under state law. Under Washington’s Constitution, they should be placed at the front of the legislative line. (One initiative is to expand parental rights in public schools and the other would bar transgender student athletes from girls’ sports.)
Instead, they are being pushed aside and disregarded — a public slight to Washingtonians across the state.
Article II, Section 1(a) of the Washington Constitution is clear: Initiatives to the Legislature “shall take precedence over all other measures” and must be either enacted or rejected — not ignored, and not slow-walked. Not buried under hundreds of routine policy bills.
Precedence means priority. It means first.
For more than a century, Washington courts have recognized the initiative power as a core part of our system of checks and balances — a way for citizens to act when they believe elected officials are unresponsive. The state Supreme Court has repeatedly said this power must be “liberally construed” and protected from legislative interference.
In other words, the people’s lawmaking authority is not a courtesy granted by Olympia. It is a constitutional right.
This is not theoretical. For decades, every initiative sent to the Legislature received hearings. Even in 2024, when lawmakers initially resisted considering a slate of initiatives, public pressure and constitutional reality ultimately forced action, and several were passed.
What is happening now sets a dangerous precedent. If legislative leaders can decline to consider initiatives because they are politically inconvenient, then the constitutional guarantee that such measures “take precedence” becomes meaningless.
The people become a suggestion box instead of a governing partner.
Supporters and opponents of the current initiatives may strongly disagree about their substance. That is healthy in a democracy. But the process that brings those measures forward belongs to everyone, regardless of ideology. Today it may be one set of voters being ignored; tomorrow it could be another.
This is not about whether lawmakers like a proposal. It is about whether they will honor the constitutional role of the citizens they represent.
When hundreds of non-budget bills are receiving hearings, votes and committee attention, while constitutionally protected initiatives are denied even that basic consideration, something has gone seriously wrong. The Legislature cannot pick and choose which parts of the Constitution to follow based on political comfort or preference.
The initiative process exists precisely for moments like this — when the public believes the political class is too insulated, too cautious, or too aligned with special interests to act. That is not only why our Constitution elevated these measures above ordinary legislation, but also why it uses mandatory language. Courts have consistently defended the “fourth branch” of government: the people themselves. Legislative leaders’ choice to ignore this speaks volumes.
Washington’s leaders face a simple choice. They can follow the Constitution and give voter initiatives the priority and consideration the law demands, or they can redefine “take precedence” to mean “we’ll get to it if we feel like it.” Evidently, they have once again decided they don’t feel like it; that’s unacceptable.
One of the above choices preserves the balance of power envisioned by our founders. The other erodes it.
The people of Washington did their part. They gathered signatures. They followed the law. They invoked a constitutional right. Now it is time for the Legislature to do its part as well.
