Washington
WA Supreme Court to consider Let’s Go Washington lawsuit challenging ‘millionaires tax’
Washington’s Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the constitutionality of a portion of the recently passed income tax on high earners, also known as the “millionaires tax.”
The law includes a clause that prevents it from being repealed by voters through a method called a referendum, something that conservative group Let’s Go Washington has alleged is unconstitutional.
RELATED: Washington’s historic income tax on high earners is now law
“The framers of our constitution said, ‘We don’t like taxes,’ and then, they were very strict about the rules of what could be taxed and how it could be taxed,” Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood said. “It’s mind-boggling… [to] say we’re going to make an exception to anything that’s tax-related and the people can’t do a referendum on it.”
Heywood and his group attempted to file a referendum petition on the new law last week, but the Secretary of State bounced their petition back, noting that a referendum was not allowed under this law. In response, Let’s Go Washington filed the lawsuit challenging the clause.
A referendum is a particular process that has to be filed within 90 days after the Legislative session has ended to repeal a law that was passed during that session. If 154,455 signatures can be collected by June, voters would have a chance to repeal the targeted law in November. Implementation of the law is frozen until voters have a chance to weigh in.
Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, who sponsored the tax, said the inclusion of a clause to bar a referendum isn’t unusual for legislation that involves taxes, and wasn’t put in to try to dampen voter participation. Many revenue-related bills often include a clause that prevents a referendum from being brought against them, because in the state constitution, revenue-generating bills are necessary to the functioning of government.
“That’s not some special measure to try to block public involvement in the process,” Pedersen said. “That is just a statement of fact under the Constitution, that this is a revenue measure and it’s not subject to referendum.”
RELATED: Is ‘millionaire migration’ really a thing? Lessons from states that already tax the rich
State constitution scholars agree.
Hugh Spitzer, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law and expert on Constitutional Law, said while there have been about a dozen instances over the past 100 years where the clause barring a referendum on a law has been challenged, the court has typically held that the clause is constitutional.
“The Legislature has to make tough choices about taxes and about budgets, and so it would interfere with the functionality of government if every time the Legislature adopted a tax or passed a budget bill, it went to referendum,” Spitzer said.
In the past, he said people have tried to bring a referendum against a number of laws, such as a law allocating money for highway construction, excise taxes on margarine, a timber tax — all had a clause barring a referendum petition, and the court did not rule that could be overridden.
“I would say that the petitioners or plaintiffs in this instance have an uphill climb to get the court to rule against the Legislature’s use of the existing public institutions clause,” Spitzer said.
The Supreme Court is expected to hold a hearing on the constitutionality of this clause at the end of April. If the justices rule the use of the clause is unconstitutional, Pedersen has said the Legislature may need to call a special session, as the state’s budget for the next four years was balanced partially with revenue collected from the tax.
RELATED: Coming soon: Lawsuit challenging Washington state’s ‘millionaires tax’
If the Supreme Court upholds the clause, there is still another opportunity for voters to weigh in.
Let’s Go Washington has said if their referendum petition is denied, they will be pursuing the initiative process to put a repeal of the law on the ballot, though an initiative requires twice as many signatures to be gathered.
“A referendum is a simple, easy to understand, up or down, yes or no vote,” Heywood said. “If it’s an initiative, you have to get people to understand ‘vote yes in order to vote no,’ and that’s a much harder sell.”
The White House Easter Egg Roll returns Monday with a patriotic theme to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
Road closures and parking restrictions near the White House went into effect early Monday and may affect your evening commute, too. See a full list below.
For the main event, children from across the country will use a wooden spoon to roll a real egg down the South Lawn at the White House. In addition to the roll, families can join fun activities, including writing cards to service members and egg hunts.
First lady Melania Trump, second lady Usha Vance and several Trump administration officials are scheduled to read stories to kids.
The egg roll is one of the oldest White House traditions, dating back to the 1870s.
Road closures and parking restrictions for White House Easter Egg Roll 2026
The Metropolitan Police Department released the following list of road closures.
On Monday, April 6, 2026, the following streets will be posted as Emergency No Parking, from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.:
- 17th Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to Constitution Avenue, NW
- Constitution Avenue from 14th Street to 18th Street, NW
- 15th Street from F Street to Constitution Avenue, NW
- On Monday, April 6, 2026, the following streets will be closed to vehicular traffic, from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.:
- 17th Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to Independence Avenue, SW
- 15th Street from F Street, NW to Independence Avenue, SW
- Constitution Avenue from 14th Street to 18th Street, NW
On Monday, April 6, 2026, the following streets will be restricted to local vehicle traffic only, from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.:
- 17th Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to H Street, NW
- C Street from 17th Street to 18th Street, NW
- D Street from 17th Street to 18th Street, NW
- E Street from 17th Street to 18th Street, NW
- F Street from 17th Street to 18th Street, NW
- Pennsylvania Avenue from 17th Street to 18th Street, NW
- New York Avenue from 17th Street to 18th Street, NW
- Lower Pennsylvania Avenue/E Street from 14th Street to 15th Street, NW
- Upper Pennsylvania Avenue from 14th Street to 15th Street, NW (hotel traffic only)
- 15th Street from F Street to H Street, NW
- F Street from 14th Street to 15th Street, NW
- G Street from 14th Street to 15th Street, NW
- New York Avenue from 14th Street to 15th Street, NW
You can find timely updates on the DC Police Traffic X page.
(WDBJ) – April 5, 1856:
Booker T. Washington was born in Franklin County, Virginia.
Washington would later gain fame for championing humanitarian efforts for African Americans, establishing the Tuskegee Institute, a school for African Americans, in 1881.
Gray Media, parent company of WDBJ7, is celebrating the upcoming 250th birthday of the United States of America with a year-long look at our country called “We the People”.
Copyright 2026 WDBJ. All rights reserved.
Washington
Freeman, Pages lead another offensive barrage by the Dodgers in a 10-5 win over Washington – WTOP News
Freddie Freeman hit two-run doubles in the first and second innings and Andy Pages added a three-run homer in the fifth to help the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-5 rout of the Washington Nationals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Freddie Freeman hit two-run doubles in the first and second innings and Andy Pages added a three-run homer in the fifth to help the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-5 rout of the Washington Nationals on Saturday.
Pages went 3 for 5 to raise his average to .500 (15 for 30) on the young season. The Dodgers have scored 23 runs on 32 hits in the first two games of this series despite losing Mookie Betts in the first inning Saturday because of lower back pain.
Tyler Glasnow (1-0) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings. He struck out nine with two walks.
Jake Irvin (1-1) allowed six runs and eight hits in four innings.
CJ Abrams homered for the Nationals.
Miguel Rojas, who replaced Betts at shortstop before the bottom of the first, hit a sacrifice fly in the second to make it 3-0. Then Freeman hit his second double of the game.
The Dodgers used the Automated Ball-Strike System to score another run in the third. Alex Call successfully challenged a called third strike with two outs, then hit an RBI single.
Luis García Jr. got Washington on the board with an RBI triple in the third, and Curtis Mead doubled home a run in the fourth, but Pages connected off reliever Brad Lord to make it 9-2.
Kyle Tucker hit an RBI single in the seventh for the final Los Angeles run.
Will Smith had three hits for the Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani had two.
Garcia finished a homer shy of the cycle for Washington, and Abrams hit a two-run shot in the eighth.
Up next
The Dodgers try for a sweep Sunday, sending Roki Sasaki (0-0) to the mound against Foster Griffin (1-0).
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Copyright
© 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
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