CASA de Maryland suffered a setback last week in its ongoing attempts to deny Maryland citizens their constitutional right to vote on the controversial Dream Act, which grants in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants. In a joint stipulation with Judicial Watch — the public interest group representing Dream Act opponents — CASA agreed to drop its legal challenge to more than 132,000 signatures on the successful petition to place a Dream referendum on the November 2012 ballot. MDPetition.com collected more than twice the required number of signatures, which were later validated by the Maryland State Board of Elections. CASA now has just one shaky argument left: Its claim that the Dream Act is not subject to referendum under Maryland law because it is an appropriations bill.

As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton points out, this is “an extremely tenuous argument.” For one thing, Article XVI, Section 2 of the Maryland Constitution is unambiguous when it establishes referendum as the constitutional remedy for registered voters to challenge acts of the General Assembly with which they vehemently disagree.