Molesworth v. State Ballot Law Commission

These two petitions challenge the correctness of a majority decision of the State Ballot Law Commission invalidating a petition for referendum to repeal St. 1963, c. 506, which provides for an increase in salary and expense allowances for members of the General Court. In Molesworth v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, 347 Mass. 47, an emergency preamble was adjudged sufficient to make the statute effective forthwith, and an order was entered directing the Secretary to take no further steps for a referendum on the statute as a nonemergency measure.

The first of the present cases is a petition…