Back in 2013, we wrote about a local initiative in Spokane that would have established a community bill of rights. Under the initiative (from Envision Spokane), zoning changes would have required neighborhood voter approval, the Spokane River would have a legal right to exist and flourish, employees would have the protections of the Bill of Rights against their employers, and legal rights of corporations would be taken away (a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision).

A Superior Court judge ruled that it could not go to the ballot because it was beyond the scope of the local initiative power. The appeals process is now over; yesterday the state Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Superior Court. The Supreme Court writes, "all four provisions of the Envision Initiative were outside the scope of the local initiative power, as they either dealt with nonlegislative matters or were outside the authority of the city." Thus, it "should not be put on the ballot."

The Spokesman-Review has more on the decision.

So how is this different from Initiative 1366? A Superior Court judge said I-1366 would likely be found to be beyond the scope of the initiative power, but he allowed it to go to the ballot. The state Supreme Court also said it could be on the ballot, without saying (yet) whether it was beyond the scope.

The Envision Spokane decision explains the difference, which stems from the fact that statewide initiatives are a constitutional right of the people, while local initiative powers are merely established by statute and city charters:

Courts will not consider a challenge to the substantive validity of a statewide initiative prior to the election. Courts will generally review only two types of challenges–procedural challenges (such as sufficiency of signatures and ballot titles) and whether the subject matter is proper for direct legislation. As we have explained, this second type of challenge is typically aimed at local initiatives because of the "more limited powers of initiatives under city or county charters."

(Citations omitted.) We wrote generally about initiatives at the local level in 2011.