Facts
On October 5, 1999, the Swiss People's Party (SVP) submitted a popular initiative titled "Naturalization to the People!" to the City of Zurich. The initiative demanded that the authority to grant citizenship to foreign nationals born abroad be assigned to the enfranchised citizens of the City of Zurich. The Zurich City Council declared the initiative invalid. The SVP, Thomas Meier, and Mauro Tuena filed a complaint against this decision, which was upheld by the Zurich District Council. The City Council then filed a complaint with the Zurich Cantonal Government, which upheld the City Council's decision. The complainants then filed a voting rights complaint with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court decided that the introduction of a popular vote on naturalization applications violates the constitutional right to a reasoned decision. According to Article 29, Paragraph 2 of the Federal Constitution, naturalization decisions are subject to the duty to provide reasons. However, this duty to provide reasons cannot be fulfilled in the case of popular votes, as the voting result alone does not indicate whether the rejection was based on a constitutionally prohibited criterion. Subsequent reasoning by a municipal authority cannot remedy this deficiency.
Furthermore, the authorities' duty to…