(DOWNLOAD) "Compton Et Al. v. State Ballot Law" by Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Compton Et Al. v. State Ballot Law
- Author : Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- Release Date : January 29, 1942
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 74 KB
Description
FIELD, Chief Justice. These two cases, argued together, relate to the same ultimate issue -- whether a measure proposed as a law by initiative petition, being 'An Act to allow physicians to provide medical contraceptive care to married persons for the protection of life or health,' shall be submitted to the voters at the State election to be held in 1942. The State ballot law commission, upon objections to the initiative petition, found, among other things, that one of the first ten signers of the initiative petition, Sarah T. Curwood 'was not a person entitled to sign this petition,' and stated: 'we are, therefore, for this reason alone forced to decree that this initiative petition shall not go on the ballot.' The Secretary of the Commonwealth for a like reason takes the position that it is not his duty to submit the proposed law to the voters at the State election. One of the cases is a petition for a writ of certiorari, brought in the superior Court by nine citizens and duly qualified and registered voters in the cities and towns in which they respectively reside, against the commissioners constituting the State ballot law commission for the purpose of quashing the proceedings before said commission, above referred to. The other case is a petition for a writ of mandamus, brought in the Superior Court by the same petitioners against the Secretary of the Commonwealth, to command him to submit the proposed law to the people at the next State election. The cases were heard by a Judge of the Superior Court and reported by him without decision to this court for its determination. The respondents in the certiorari case filed a return to the petition, and the case comes before us upon the petition and the return thereto. The parties, however, have agreed that the 'facts as stated in the respondents' return are true and constitute the entire record of the proceedings of the respondents,' and the Judge has found the facts to be as so stated. In the mandamus case a statement of agreed facts was filed. No evidence other than that contained therein was introduced by either party, and the Judge found the facts to be as stated in the statement of agreed facts. The case comes before us upon the petition, the answer of the respondents, and the statement of agreed facts.