Mob Rule Rules in California

In 2024, California voters will decide whether to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prohibits municipalities from imposing rent control on properties built after 1995. Regardless of the outcome of the election, this is just another in a long string of examples that California is dominated by mob rule.

In California, nearly every activity is subject to the approval of a democratic majority. In California, as in all democracies, the majority may do as it pleases simply because it is the majority. In California, an individual’s life is perpetually threatened by the majority. Landlords are only the latest example.

In 2022, voters were asked whether Californians should be allowed to bet on sports, whether new regulations should be imposed on dialysis clinics, and whether millionaires should be taxed to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles. All three measures were rejected by voters, but they illustrate the wide variety of ways the rights of individuals are subjected to a vote.

Those who wish to bet on sporting events cannot do so without the permission of the majority. Dialysis clinics can only operate as the majority deems proper. Millionaires cannot use their money as they choose, but only as the majority permits. In these examples, and countless others, individuals cannot act as they think best. They can only act as the majority deems appropriate.

The premise underlying mob rule is that the majority determines what is proper, right, and just.  This relegates individual rights to the status of temporary permissions, which may be revoked whenever the majority deems it appropriate. That is exactly what is happening in California.

Returning to the issue of rent control, landlords who own properties built after 1995 are currently exempt from rent control laws. They currently enjoy some protection of their property rights—the freedom to trade on terms they deem best. But, if the majority of voters decides to repeal Costa-Hawkins, that right will be revoked.

The fact that this is even up for a vote illustrates that rights are only temporary permissions in California. The proposals to impose new regulations on dialysis clinics and tax millionaires to subsidize electric cars are further evidence. For now, clinics and millionaires enjoy some property rights. But as the initiatives on the 2022 ballot show, those rights can be revoked if the majority chooses. Mob rule rules in California.