PORT ANGELES — The state Supreme Court ruled today that City Hall’s water fluoridation program cannot be challenged through the initiative process.
The 5-4 vote, short of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, ends a four-year-long effort by opponents of fluoridation to bring the practice to a vote of the people.
Two groups, Our Water-Our Choice! and Protect Our Waters, both filed their own initiatives in 2006.
The city of Port Angeles began adding fluoride to drinking water in 2006.
The state Supreme Court ruled that fluoridation is not subject to the initiative process because it’s an administrative action. Only legislative actions can be challenged by an initiative.
The majority opinion argued that fluoridation is not a legislative action because the city was not creating new policy; it was merely acting within the authority granted to it by its own water management plan and state Department of Health regulations.
The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Richard Sanders, argued that it’s not administrative because the city is not required to fluoridate water.
Sanders wrote that the majority decision “diminishes our state’s forthright commitment” to the right of citizens to check government actions through the initiative process.
