MSNBC: California recall law put in place at the same time women were...

[wyldwolf]

...were given the vote - as if to say if women elect the "wrong people" we can recall them.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. wow...that sucks!

[Frodo]

2. No so! Let's not confuse it's contemporary use with it's purpose.

The recall provision (which is not a "law", but part of the state constitution), was NOT enacted to overturn women making the wrong decision (ridiculous anyway since the women would get to vote on the recall as well).

It was put into place in order to fight the possibility of corruption in Government. Democrats feared the power of corporate money's influence on elections and wanted a way to undo them.

[wyldwolf]

3. On the contrary...

..the speaker noted, as a matter of conversation, that the california recall (law, provision, whatever) was pushed into law around the same time women were given the right to vote...

"It seems clear that Johnson and his fellow reformers, known as Progressives, saw a recall as something to be used rarely when they pushed it into law in 1911

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6113858.htm

Women were given the right to vote in 1911.

Of course, the link is the speaker's opinion...

[Frodo]

4. I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with?

So the article got it wrong too? There IS a california law dealing with how to implement the Constitutional recall provision, just as there are laws dealing with how we elect Congress, But it's still a Constitutional mandate - Article II sections 13- etc. Section 16 deals with how the legislature will implement it (the "law" spoken of).

The historical linkage to one being enacted in the same year as another does not imply any causality. I could just as easily post that it was passed in reaction to the creation of the Ford Model T a couple years earlier. Or maybe it was the launching of the Titannic?

Or better yet? 1911 was the year Ronald Reagan was born. Maybe some enterprising politician passed this knowing they would need it a few decades later on Reagan? :-)

[wyldwolf]

5. It isn't really a disagreement...

..but the constitution of any entity is that entity's supreme law.

The US constitution is our law...

con·sti·tu·tion: The system of fundamental laws and principles that prescribes the nature, functions, and limits of a government or another institution.

So, a constitutional amendment is, in fact, a law.

It legal (lawful) to recall an office holder in California.

Other than that, as I said, the link between the law and women's right to vote was the speaker's opinion.