SJC has a busy week adjudicating a jam-packed offering of ballot questions

Supreme Judicial Court justices must have clocked some overtime this week.

They critiqued Attorney General Andrea Campbell's summary of the ballot question lowering the income tax rate. They pressed both sides of challenges to initiative petitions that would implement an all-party primary system, and repeal recreational use marijuana. They questioned whether a question legalizing rent control is constitutional, given that units operated for "religious" purposes are one of several exempt categories.

On top of those ballot question back-and-forths, justices grappled with whether Kalshi's sports-event contracts are swaps or bets, and whether a Superior Court judge erred in banning one of the country's largest prediction markets from taking action on sports-related events in Massachusetts.

Justices leaped into the standstill between Campbell and Auditor Diana DiZoglio, on Wednesday expressing an interest in seeing a progression in the parties' audit law dispute and on Thursday setting a 30-day deadline for Campbell to decide whether she'll represent DiZoglio in her attempt to sue the Legislature.

Down the street beneath the golden dome, a committee of lawmakers recommended that their colleagues take no action on any of the 11 ballot questions still in the mix.

The figure used to be 12 — that was before Tuesday, when legislators got their wish and the petition to reform the legislative stipend system fell to its death.

Assistant Attorney General Anne Sterman, who argued several times this week before the SJC, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State William Galvin that the stipend measure couldn't proceed because Campbell's certification of the petition was improper. The letter followed an SJC advisory opinion that the proposal was a rule change, stepping over the line of what proposed ballot laws are constitutionally allowed to address.

Galvin's office said it can't provide petitions if Campbell's office believes the proposal was improperly certified, effectively killing the question. The committee supporting the question vowed to return in 2028 with a question to "eliminate stipends altogether," and blamed the plan's demise on the "Legislature's backdoor maneuver."

The opposition had begun in the Senate, which started the process that got the petition killed by requesting an advisory opinion from the SJC.

The chamber saw some action this week outside of that win, as senators released their fiscal 2027 budget and debated a long-awaited bill to protect immigrants.

MASSterList Job Board
Executive Assistant — NEW!, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Brand Manager, The Greater Boston Food Bank
Associate Director of Youth Development, Just A Start Corporation
Intake Coordinator, Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General
Senior Counsel – Workers’ Compensation and Employee Benefits, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
Communication & Engagement Coordinator, Town of Andover
Digital Communications Specialist, Town of Andover

Jobs continue below the fold — post a job

The $63.3 billion fiscal 2027 Senate Ways and Means budget has "no contingency" built into it should an income tax cut pass in six months, and includes no new taxes and fees. It mirrors the House's proposal by completing the final phase of the Student Opportunity Act, aligns with Gov. Maura Healey's plan to eliminate GLP-1 coverage for MassHealth members to rein in costs, implements systemic changes to the way sheriffs are funded, and reduces Department of Conservation and Recreation funding for state parks.

The Senate proposal includes a few differences, including a formal effort to reconsider how education funding is distributed; a policy to streamline local permitting and ease zoning barriers; and a higher — $53 million — increase in unrestricted general government aid that would be distributed with a new, per-capita formula.

Senators on Thursday took up their version of the so-called PROTECT Act as immigrants deal with stepped up federal immigration law enforcement. The Senate bill, which includes several Healey-proposed policies, would prohibit civil arrests, including federal civil immigration arrests, from state courts, child care facilities, public schools, houses of worship, and health care providers without judicial warrants.

It goes beyond the House's version, which protects only courthouses from civil arrests.

Back in March, Public Safety Chair Dan Cahill said "we're in an ever-changing landscape, legally" and that codifying certain spaces in law "would then hamstring us to those spaces." Black and Latino Legislative Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Vargas said the caucus "didn't want to provide false expectations as to what a 'safe space' is when we're looking at the constitutionality of all this stuff."

Senate Democrats said they are confident their bill is constitutional. Unlike the stipends measure, they opted against a call from some senators to seek a high court opinion of some of the PROTECT Act provisions.

A Speaker Ron Mariano spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the House "remains committed to sending a bill to the Governor’s desk that creates immediate protections for immigrants in their daily lives at a crucial moment, and that can stand the test of time."

The Black and Latino Caucus in a Friday statement urged "a legally-durable resolution that prioritizes the strongest protections for immigrant families ahead of the World Cup and coming events that bring global attention to our region." The first FIFA World Cup game is scheduled for June 13 in Foxborough.

The Senate on Thursday appointed a trio to negotiate another bill. Sens. Brendan Crighton, Michael Rodrigues and Peter Durant will join forces with three to-be-determined reps to hash out the Senate's school cellphone ban bill, and a House bill that combines that ban with youth social media regulations.

Healey added another bill to the pile Monday, filing legislation that would regulate micromobility vehicles like e-bikes, scooters and mopeds via a "speed-based framework."

Healey was at the State House Friday calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold access to mifepristone, the South End on Tuesday for a climate technology conference, and in Danvers holding a press conference about State Trooper Kevin Trainor, who died in the line of duty early Wednesday morning in a collision with a wrong-way driver on Route 1 in Lynnfield. "Nothing will ever repair the pain that we feel today," State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble said Wednesday. "But we make a solemn promise: We will never forget his service as a decorated Massachusetts state trooper."

THE SUNDAY SHOWS

KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller's guest is Amy Carnevale, chair of the MassGOP. They discuss the races for governor and U.S. Senate, and the state of the party locally and nationally.

@ ISSUE SIT DOWN: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews Barney Frank, the former Mass. congressman now in hospice care in Maine.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. The guest is Brian Shortsleeve, one of the two GOP candidates for governor.

JOB BOARD

Do you have an open job you'd like to feature here? Click here to place a job board order, or email Dylan Rossiter at [email protected].