The recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a perfectly constitutional exercise, but that hasn’t stopped a few desperate supporters from trying to cancel the election single-handedly.
A complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California asserts that California’s recall process violates the equal protection clause. The two-part recall asks voters first if they want to recall Newsom, then who they want to replace him if voters do decide to remove him from the job. This, according to the plaintiffs, means that Newsom could be replaced by a candidate who receives fewer votes than he does, making the election unconstitutional.
If this thinking sounds familiar, that’s because Erwin Chemerinsky argued exactly that in a New York Times opinion piece just last week, wherein he also encouraged the courts to step in. Evidently, a couple of people took Chemerinsky’s piece to heart and made a last-ditch effort to try and save Newsom from the humiliation of becoming his state’s second recalled governor.
The argument that California’s recall election is unconstitutional is absurd on its face. It has already been thoroughly debunked by Charles Cooke at National Review. The complaint is a joke, especially given that ballots are already being mailed out to California voters. But these last-ditch efforts demonstrate just how far some partisans will go to save party politicians, even the ones as mediocre as Gavin Newsom.
