San Bernardino County Supervisors’ single-term lifetime limit is hanging by a thread before it can even take effect.
Judge Donald Alvarez ruled the limit unconstitutional Sept. 17 saying it prevents voters from choosing their desired candidates, and does not solve the stated problems with incumbent candidates.
The Red Brennan Group, which pushed for the measure in 2020, appealed Alvarez’s ruling Sept. 22.
The lifetime limit, passed 67% to 33% in November of 2020 as Measure K, would prevent San Bernardino County supervisors from being elected as supervisor a second time.
The “rights at issue are the right of the electorate to vote for the candidate of their choice and the right of an incumbent to run for his office again,” Alvarez wrote in his ruling.
These rights are so valued that a high burden has to be met to deprive voters of them, Alvarez wrote.
Alvarez argued that a supervisor in the first term can be just as distracted by job-hunting as they would be seeking re-election, and that California’s existing lifetime term limits on state senators and assembly members kick in after eight and six years of service, compared to a supervisor’s four years.
