Massachusetts Attorney General Seeks Guidance from Chapter 135 Supporters to Determine if the Referendum to Repeal the Law Meets Constitutional Standards!

August 13, 2024

On August 12, 2024 the ten original signers to initiate a referendum petition to repeal Chapter 135 received an email from the Massachusetts Attorney General. (See Below) The email explained that the Secretary of the Commonwealth had asked the Attorney General to make a ruling on whether the proposed referendum complies with Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution. It is a very simple determination that the Attorney General should be capable of discerning in a few minutes. Instead, the Attorney General’s office has sought guidance on the matter from a host of outside sources, many of which likely had a hand in writing the new law.

“It is confusing that the Attorney General would be seeking opinions from the very people that likely wrote Chapter 135. The AGs only job right now is to determine if the petition meets Constitutional standards, which it clearly does,” said Jim Wallace Executive Director of GOAL and first signer of the referendum. “Why in the world would the AG need the input of anti-civil rights organizations to interpret a Constitution she is supposed to fully understand and protect?”

It would appear that the Attorney General is trying to find an excuse to deny the petition. From her email she is likely looking for support from the anti-civil rights groups to back such a position. Like most of the history of Chapter 135, the bulk of the “process” is questionable at best.

Should the Attorney General deny the petition, we will be seeking legal action.

Other than the original signers of the petition, the AG is seeking opinions from:

• Mass Chiefs
• Fraternal Order of Police
• Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence
• Everytown
• Giffords
• Brady United
• Gary Klein Consulting (Former AG staffer who authored the 2016 AW piece.)
• MA Executive Office of Public Safety

Email from the Attorney General Staff (MA):

As you may be aware, the Secretary of the Commonwealth has asked the Attorney General to opine whether the referendum filed on Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 (“An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws”) complies with the constitutional standards set forth for referenda in Amendment Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution. I will be coordinating the Attorney General’s review of that inquiry with my colleague Phoebe Fischer-Groban. You are receiving this email because you have been identified as a person or entity who may wish to provide input on the question whether Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 is a law that may be the subject of a referendum. Please be advised that the Attorney General’s review is limited to whether the law may be the subject of a referendum under Amendment Article 48, and will not extend to policy or other legal or constitutional considerations. In addition, the Attorney General is charged with preparing a “fair and concise summary” of the law.

Because this matter is time-sensitive, if you wish to provide input on the question whether this law may properly be the subject of a referendum, please do so by email on or before Wednesday, August 14, 2024. We appreciate your confining any input to the narrow legal question before us. We will also solicit input on our draft summary of the law when we are ready to do so; if you wish to submit your own draft summary for our consideration prior to that, please also do so ASAP. If you are aware of any other otherwise interested parties, please let me know so I can include them in this process, or feel free to forward this message to them.

Kindly reply-all with all future correspondence on these petitions, to facilitate an open process where you have the opportunity to respond to the other’s input, to the extent possible within our time constraints. And of course, please reach out with any questions about the process.