"We're not trying to deprive the citizens from their right to get into the Constitution. We just want to make it harder so that it doesn't happen all the time."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/26/national/26BALL.htmlPublished: April 26, 2004
MIAMI, April 25 — The phrase "pregnant pigs" may not mean much outside Florida, or even outside the Capitol in Tallahassee. But it has become a rallying cry in the legislative session that ends this week, signifying, for some, all that is wrong with the State Constitution and the process of amending it.
Florida is among 24 states that let residents bypass their elected leaders and put proposals to amend the Constitution directly on the ballot. Since 1968, Floridians have had the right to do that, provided they gather enough signatures on petitions, and have approved 16 citizen initiatives.
But lawmakers have long complained that the process unfairly burdens the state by mandating expensive new programs. They also argue it clutters the Constitution, which they say should be sacrosanct. For critics of the process, the watershed year was 2002, when voters approved a record five citizen initiatives, including one, heavily promoted by animal-rights groups, that banned the confinement of pregnant pigs in small cages.
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