Another Law Struck Down By Supreme Court

On today’s show we’re going to talk about a Washington Supreme Court decision that, on the surface, is about natural gas.

But I think the much more interesting story is what this ruling could mean for the way laws are written, and by extension, for real estate investors trying to understand the rules under which they are making long-term investment decisions.

The case is called Climate Solutions versus State of Washington. On September 17, the Washington Supreme Court struck down Initiative 2066, a ballot initiative that Washington voters had approved in 2024. The initiative was broadly aimed at protecting access to natural gas and limiting government policies that would discourage its use.

But the court did not strike it down because of the merits of natural gas policy.

It struck it down because of the way the initiative was constructed.

Washington’s Constitution contains a remarkably simple sentence. Article II, Section 19 says:

“No bill shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.”

Historically, courts have allowed fairly broad legislation. A bill dealing with transportation, for example, can obviously contain provisions governing roads, transit, bridges and funding.

But the Washington court emphasized that it is not enough for every provision merely to relate to some enormously broad title.

There must be what the court calls vertical rational unity — the provisions have to relate to the overall subject of the legislation.

But there must also be horizontal rational unity. In other words, the provisions need to relate meaningfully to each other.

43 states have similar single subject provisions in their constitution. So this is not just a Washington issue. This ruling will likely be cited in other jurisdictions.

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