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Cal 3 was a proposal to split the U.S. state of
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
into three states. It was launched in August 2017 by
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
venture capitalist
Tim Draper Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),
, who led the effort to have it originally qualify on the November 2018 state ballot as Proposition 9, officially the Division of California into Three States initiative. Proponents of the proposal argued that dividing California into three states would provide fairer and more responsive governance for large regions outside of California’s major cities. In July 2018, the Supreme Court of California pulled it from the ballot for further state constitutional review. Draper officially stopped pushing for the measure soon after. On 12 September 2018, the court permanently removed the measure from all future ballots. The Cal 3 proposal would not have legally split the state immediately; the division would have occurred only if and when the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
consented to admit the new states to the Union per Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Rather, the measure would have established procedures within the state government for the proposed split. There were key procedural differences between the Cal 3 initiative and Draper's previous
Six Californias Six Californias was a proposed initiative to split the U.S. state of California into six states. It failed to qualify as a California ballot measure for the 2016 state elections due to receiving insufficient signatures. Venture capitalist Tim D ...
plan, which failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the 2014 ballot. Among the differences, Cal 3 was an initiative to change a California statute, which required fewer petition signatures to qualify for the ballot than a proposed state constitutional amendment like the Six Californias plan. Also, language in the Cal 3 initiative was written so that if it was approved by the voters, the legislative consent required by Section 3 of Article IV "is given by the people" instead of directly by the California State Legislature. As with his previous Six Californias plan, Draper and other proponents of Cal 3 said that the state is too large and ungovernable, and splitting California would produce smaller and more efficient state governments. Similarly to the previous plan, opponents said that such a split would be an unnecessary use of money and resources.


Background


California history

California has been the subject of more than 220 proposals to divide it into multiple states since its admission to the union in 1850, including at least 27 significant proposals in the first 150 years of statehood. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper launched
Six Californias Six Californias was a proposed initiative to split the U.S. state of California into six states. It failed to qualify as a California ballot measure for the 2016 state elections due to receiving insufficient signatures. Venture capitalist Tim D ...
, a proposed initiative to split California into six states, in December 2013. It failed to obtain sufficient signatures to qualify as a California ballot measure for the 2016 state elections. He spent more than $5 million to try to qualify the proposition for the ballot, including nearly $450,000 for political consultants.


Federal precedents

Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution outlines the procedure for the admission of new
U.S. states In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
. It reads: There are several precedents for the creation of new states out of pre-existing ones. Note that the pre-existing state does not disappear but simply gets smaller when the new state is admitted. The original state is not renamed or re-admitted, since it never leaves the union. Congress addresses only the question of admitting the ''new'' state. * The Commonwealth of Kentucky was admitted in 1792. It was created from the western territory of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virginia legislature had already approved release of the land when the old constitution was still in effect (1781-1789). But as the Congress had not acted before the new constitution was enacted, it passed the bill of consent again as a matter of course. *
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
ceded its western territory to the United States, as the
Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
. The Congress subsequently created it the State of Tennessee in 1796. * The State of Georgia likewise ceded the western two-thirds of its post-1783 territory, part of which was disputed with the Spanish Colony of Florida until 1795. That territory was subsequently split in half, with the western portion created the State of Mississippi in 1817 and the eastern portion created the
State of Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
in 1819. Both states and the
State of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
(1812) were expanded when the United States acquired
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
from Spain in 1821, and divided the western half of the Florida Panhandle between the three. One instance was related to
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
: * In the 1820
Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...
, abolitionist-leaning states allowed
Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
to be admitted as a slave state subsequent to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' agreement to release its northeastern territory (accounting for more than 75% of the Commonwealth's land area) for the admission of
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
as a free state. This kept the number of free states and slave states in balance. In fact, the independence of Maine from Massachusetts had been first considered three decades earlier for completely different reasons but the impending admission of Missouri as a slave state provided political momentum to achieve it. One instance was a direct result of the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
: * When
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
seceded from the United States in 1861, the people in the northwestern counties of the state refused to support the decision. They formed a provisional
Restored Government of Virginia The Restored (or Reorganized) Government of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and join ...
and were admitted to the union as the State of West Virginia in 1863. They were admitted as a slave state and were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation, on the understanding they would use the time thus allowed to prepare for the eventual abolition of slavery nationwide, which happened with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865. The admission of Vermont is often mistakenly presumed to be the result of a partition of New York, but that is not the actual history. At the time the
American War for Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
began, most of the northern half of what is now Vermont was part of the British Province of
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. The southern half and west bank of the Connecticut River Valley had been disputed between
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
and New York for several decades. When New Hampshire surrendered its claim in 1782, New York refused to recognise the grants of land made by New Hampshire decades earlier, which had been the bases for establishing 131 towns and New York's action infuriated Vermonters. The Privy Council in London ruled in favour of the Vermonters but the damage had already been done, so that six months after the
Province of New York The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the U ...
seceded from the British Empire, the Commonwealth of Vermont seceded from New York, in January 1777. The first Vermont Constitution was adopted in July 1777, and Vermont remained a fully independent nation for 14 years. Negotiations to join the United States were thwarted by perennial objection from New York, which continued to claim Vermont. New York finally surrendered its claim, paving the way for Vermont to ratify the U.S. Constitution on 10 January 1791, and be admitted as the 14th state on 4 March 1791. A similar dispute arose between the
State of Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and the
Territory of Michigan The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit ...
in 1835-36, over which of them had rights to the Maumee Strip, including newly-created Toledo. Ohio's claim was proper, so her consent was necessary for Michigan to become a state if it wanted to have Toledo. A compromise was reached under which Michigan was given the
Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...
instead; and Michigan became a state in January 1837.


Ballot qualification process

Draper introduced Cal 3 in August 2017. On October 24, 2017, California Secretary of State
Alex Padilla Alejandro Padilla ( ; born March 22, 1973) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from California since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Padilla served as the 30th secretary of state of California from 201 ...
gave approval for Draper to begin collecting petition signatures; under California state law, to qualify for the ballot, valid signatures of at least 365,880 registered California voters (five percent of the total votes cast for the Governor of California in the November 2014 general election) were required to be submitted by April 23, 2018. Because Cal 3 is an initiative to change a California statute instead of a state constitutional amendment, it requires fewer petition signatures to qualify for the ballot than the 807,615 that the Six Californias plan needed. On April 12, 2018, eleven days before the deadline, Draper announced that he had collected over 600,000 signatures. On June 13, it was announced that there were sufficient valid signatures.


Measure details

The Cal 3 measure would add a new article to the
California Codes The California Codes are 29 legal codes enacted by the California State Legislature, which together form the general statutory law of California. The official Codes are maintained by the California Office of Legislative Counsel for the Legislatur ...
. It outlines three proposed new states, and then calls for the California State Legislature to divide and transform the existing state into the three states. The proposal would then need the approval of voters in California, and then of the Congress of the United States (per Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution).


Proposed states

The Cal 3 plan would divide the state's 58 counties among three states, tentatively named California (nicknamed Cal), Northern California (nicknamed NorCal), and Southern California (nicknamed SoCal). In drawing these new boundaries, Draper aimed to have it so that the three proposed states have nearly equal populations. The following is an envisioned distribution of California's 58 counties into the proposed 3 Californias.


Counties in proposed state of California

*
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
*
Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
* San Benito *
San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly hal ...
* Santa Barbara * Ventura


Counties in proposed state of Northern California

*
Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...
*
Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...
* Amador *
Butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...
* Calaveras * Colusa * Contra Costa * Del Norte * El Dorado * Glenn * Humboldt *
Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
* Lassen * Marin * Mariposa * Mendocino *
Merced Merced (; Spanish for "Mercy") is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California, United States, in the San Joaquin Valley. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 86,333, up from 78,958 in 2010. Incorporated on April 1 ...
* Modoc * Napa *
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* Placer * Plumas *
Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
*
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
* San Joaquin * San Mateo * Santa Clara * Santa Cruz * Shasta * Sierra * Siskiyou * Solano * Sonoma * Stanislaus * Sutter * Tehama *
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
* Tuolumne * Yolo * Yuba


Counties in proposed state of Southern California

*
Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
* Imperial * Inyo *
Kern KERN (1180 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Wasco, California, Wasco-Greenacres, California, and serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by American General ...
* Kings * Madera *
Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...
*
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
* Riverside *
San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...
*
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
* Tulare


State-splitting process

If passed by voters, the measure then directs the Governor of California on January 1, 2019 to formally submit the state-splitting request to the U.S. Congress along with the certified elections results, and ask them to grant approval within twelve months. Language in the measure states that for the purposes of Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the legislative consent for splitting the state "is given by the people". The measure also directs the California State Legislature to divide California's assets and liabilities among the three new states. If the legislature is unable to pass such a plan within 12 months of the U.S. Congress' approval to split California, the assets and liabilities would then be distributed among the three new states based on their populations.


Analysis


Fiscal and policy implications

Because various parts of the state have deep economic ties with the other areas, splitting California would be a very complicated economic and public policy process. Water rights, transportation and infrastructure projects, California's public
postsecondary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...
system, and other public programs are fully integrated throughout the state. The income levels, and therefore the personal tax bases, in the proposed states differ. Based on 2015 values, the proposed (new) California state would rank about 12th among the states in per capita personal income, the new Northern California would be 2nd, and the new Southern California would be 30th. Because the new Southern California would be below the average of the rest of the country, it might struggle financially in its initial years. The new Northern California would have the higher per capita, while the (new) California would have the largest income disparity. The income and wealth differences among the three states would result in different future policies in taxes and public spending. Each new state could adopt different laws, either stricter or more lenient, on these issues than what California currently has on the books. For example, the new states may limit or discontinue
Proposition 13 Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) is an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative process. The initiative was approved by California voters on J ...
's inflexible limits on taxes or Proposition 98's school-funding guarantee. Other programs that could be affected include health programs, social services programs, prisons and other crime-related policies, and transportation projects. These differing policies would result in long-term demographic and economic changes, as various groups of people will want to migrate to those new states with laws more favorable to them. If California's university system were to split under Cal 3, the new Northern California would have both the most
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
campuses and the most
California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
campuses. California's prison system is also unequally distributed, with the proposed Southern California housing 55% of California's current prison inmates and the (new) California only housing 13 percent. California's current water issues and water rights would also have to be resolved. The proposed new California would be a net importer of water, as the
California Aqueduct The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Califo ...
would then originate in the new Northern California, and both the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the
Colorado River Aqueduct The Colorado River Aqueduct, or CRA, is a water conveyance in Southern California in the United States, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The aqueduct impounds water from the Colorado River at Lake Hav ...
would originate in the new Southern California. Some of these issues might have to be addressed by both the U.S. Congress and the courts. The three states would also have to negotiate other infrastructure projects such as the
California High-Speed Rail California High-Speed Rail (also known as CAHSR or CHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system currently under construction in California in the United States. Planning for the project began in 1996, when the California Legislature and Gover ...
project and decide whether to continue financing them as multi-state systems. Furthermore, each new state would have to pay various one-time costs to set up separate state governments, new capitols and other administration buildings, and so forth.


National political implications

The proposed state of Southern California would have populated areas such as the
San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...
that lean toward the Republican Party, leading legal scholar
Vikram Amar Vikram David Amar (born 1963) is an American legal scholar focusing on constitutional law, federal courts, and civil and criminal procedure. In August 2015, he became dean of the University of Illinois College of Law and the Iwan Foundation Pro ...
to believe that this is a "deal breaker" for the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
. California is currently a safe state for Democrats with 55 votes in the Electoral College, and therefore splitting the state would also split those guaranteed electoral votes and make the new Southern California a potential
swing state In American politics, the term swing state (also known as battleground state or purple state) refers to any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often referring to pres ...
. Legal scholar
Jonathan Turley Jonathan Turley is an American attorney, legal scholar, writer, commentator, and legal analyst in broadcast and print journalism. A professor at George Washington University Law School, he has testified in United States Congressional proceedin ...
told CNN, "Dems consider California to be a single golden empire, it would be hard for them to accept it as three golden empires". Splitting the state would create four new seats in the
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
, two for each of the two newly created states. Although the proposed Southern California state may be more competitive for the Republican Party, the worst case for them would be that all of these new seats would go Democratic. In any case, Turley explained that the addition of four new senators "could create endless tensions between representatives". As '' Sabato's Crystal Ball'' postulates, Democrats might not want to risk losing one third of California's current electoral votes to potentially gain four new Senate seats. Conversely, Republicans also might not want to put those electoral votes into play at the expense of Democrats gaining those Senate seats. Finally, states outside of California may oppose diluting their representation in the Senate. Thus, Congress could easily just opt not to act on the Cal 3 results, much like the Puerto Rico political status plebiscites in which
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
voters were asked whether they wanted statehood, free association, or independence.


Legal issues

The Cal 3 plan raises both U.S. and California constitutional issues, which led the California Legislative Analyst's Office to predict in its initiative analysis that the measure would almost certainly be challenged on multiple grounds. A key U.S. constitutional issue is whether a voter initiative is sufficient for the state legislative approval that is required under Section 3 of Article IV for the creation of new states. The voter initiative process was not established by various states until decades after West Virginia split from Virginia in 1863, so there is no clear precedent for this specific case. However, the Supreme Court of California has ruled that a voter initiative is not sufficient for the state legislative consent that is required to call for a U.S. constitutional convention. Another issue is that there is no clear precedent indicating that a single state can be carved up into multiple ones. When West Virginia was admitted to the U.S. as a separate state, most of the new state's counties had in fact supported secession. As Vikram Amar asks, "when Article IV speaks of the need for the consent of the 'States concerned,' does that mean (in the context of a single state that is being subdivided) only consent of the mother state (which is to be divided), or also consent of the newly created states?" For example, what happens if the Cal 3 ballot measure passes statewide, but most of the voters in the proposed (New) California state opposed it? As for California constitutional issues, there is the question as to whether a statutory initiative measure like this one, without any state constitutional amendments, can start a process that fundamentally revises the state government's basic framework. Under the California Constitution, a proposal that substantially alters the state's basic governmental framework must be a state constitutional amendment that originates from either the State Legislature or a constitutional convention, and not from a ballot initiative. As Vikram Amar writes, "Certainly breaking California up alters, as a quantitative matter, most every provision in the constitution, by shrinking its effective reach ... such a division is first and foremost a matter of structure ... what is of greater importance to a state’s overall structure than its geographic boundaries?" There could also be multiple court challenges on how the state's existing liabilities are split among the new states, whether based on a plan passed by the State Legislature, or distributed based on their relative populations (as mandated by the proposal if the State Legislature fails to decide on such a plan). Among the existing liabilities are all the bonds that have been issued as a result of other passed laws or ballot measures. There is also the question as to what to do with all the health and retirement benefits and other compensation owed to the state's current public employees. There are also liabilities mandated by other policies. A number of these bonds, employee plans, and policies are currently unfunded, awaiting revenue from future state budgets. Furthermore, many of these liabilities are mandated by California constitutional amendments, so a case could be made that splitting the state may unconstitutionally impair the contractual rights of all these bondholders and public employees.


Legal challenges

On July 9, the Planning and Conservation League, an environmental group, became the first party to file a lawsuit to block the measure, asking the Supreme Court of California to pull Cal 3 off the ballot on the aforementioned grounds that it would be a ''revision'' to the state constitution that substantially alters the state's basic governmental framework. In their response, Cal 3 supporters on July 12 stated that it was "just another example of how Sacramento politicians, powerful unions and their high-priced lobbyists are trying to hold onto power at the expense of California voters". Draper also wrote a response directly to the court, stating that there is not enough time to properly consider the legal challenge: "I have been given just a day or two to respond to a complex, multi-faceted attack on my Constitutional right to initiative. This Court's long history of jealously guarding the exercise of initiative power should not be cavalierly disregarded now, especially on such a truncated timetable". In a unanimous decision on July 18, the California Supreme Court removed the measure from the 2018 ballot, ordering further legal arguments on whether it can be restored on the 2020 ballot or struck down completely. In its ruling, the court stated that "significant questions have been raised regarding the proposition’s validity and because we conclude that the potential harm in permitting the measure to remain on the ballot outweighs the potential harm in delaying the proposition to a future election." Responding to the court's order, Draper labelled it as "corruption", "the insiders are in cahoots", and that the California Supreme Court justices "probably would have lost their jobs" if Cal 3 passed. On 12 September 2018, in another unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of California permanently removed Cal 3 from all future ballots, stating:


Stances on the proposal


Support

Tim Draper's motivation is basically the same as for his failed Six Californias plan. He has stated that California is ungovernable as is, with the legislature unable to keep pace with issues in all the state's regions, especially in areas such as job creation, education, affordable housing, and water and transportation infrastructure. Furthermore, he believes that the current state government is losing touch with the people of California. According to Draper, splitting up the state would allow the resulting new state governments to be closer to their people than the current California state government. Republican California State Senator Joel Anderson stated that he will vote for Cal 3 as a referendum on the state's Democratic leadership, saying that "there is no greater insult to the one-party rule in California. It's a barometer of the potential unhappiness of the state."


Opposition

Both the 2018 Republican and Democratic nominees for governor have voiced opposition to the plan. Democratic nominee, then-California Lieutenant Governor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California f ...
told reporters on June 13 that "California's success is being a cohesive state, particularly at a time of .S. President DonaldTrump and Trumpism. We're now the fifth largest economy in the world. Why would we cede that to splitting the state up into three?" Republican nominee John H. Cox said on June 18 that he does not think Draper's plan is the answer, and that "we need to do a better job of managing the state". The
California Republican Party The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Jessica Millan Patterson. As of October 2020, Republicans repre ...
voted overwhelmingly to oppose it at their April convention. Eric C. Bauman, Chairman of the California Democratic Party, said that "it's going to be more money flushed down the toilet. Only one guy is behind it, and everyone is against it". Democratic political consultant Steven Maviglio has stated that it would be cheaper to operate California's current vast statewide government, telling '' LA Weekly'', "It's costly and impractical if you split up the existing system". Maviglio also stated that Cal 3 "doesn’t solve a single problem in the state or add a single job". The
California Chamber of Commerce California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
stated that "this measure would instead create an entirely new suite of problems to distract and consumer icvoters, political leaders, concerned citizens and ordinary residents".


Polling


References

{{reflist


External links


Official website (archived)
California secessionism Proposed states and territories of the United States