A partisan standoff over whether to hold a public hearing on a citizen-initiated red flag referendum is likely to stretch into next week’s legislative sessions and could wind up in court.

Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, tried late Thursday to force Democrats to schedule a public hearing on the referendum, proposing a series of floor motions in the Senate, all of which were rejected. He said Friday that he intends to introduce additional motions next week if Democrats still haven’t agreed to hold a hearing on the initiative.

“I don’t think this thing is over yet,” Stewart said. “If I had to wager a bet, there are some other motions I’m intending to make when we get back next week, assuming they still haven’t done the right thing.”

The red flag proposal, if passed by voters, would make it easier to confiscate the guns of a person in crisis by allowing family members to initiate the process and by removing a required mental health evaluation. The proposal came forward in the wake of the mass shooting in Lewiston in October 2023 and is certain to generate intense debate over gun rights and restrictions ahead of the November vote.

Meanwhile, the impasse over a public hearing on the proposal has added to tensions at the State House as lawmakers are in the busy final days of the legislative session.

Republicans point to a 2019 law that requires public hearings for citizen initiatives that are headed toward statewide referendum votes, unless lawmakers formally vote to waive the requirement. Such hearings have been held on other citizen proposals, but not all: A 2021 citizen initiative never received a hearing or the required waiver and was still sent to referendum and passed by voters.

Democrats have so far not backed down, arguing in part that the Maine Constitution does not require the hearing and also citing legislative rules.

Gun rights supporters who are opposed to the referendum proposal are pointing to the state law and threatening legal action against Democratic leaders, with one top advocate saying Friday that they have attorneys drafting a lawsuit.

“When there’s a state law on the books the Legislature can’t just ignore it, so that will be the basis for the challenge,” said David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsmen’s Alliance of Maine, an advocacy group for gun owners and sportsmen that is working on the lawsuit.

Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, which initiated the citizen’s referendum, said in a written statement Friday that the group is “happy to debate this issue any time” and accused Republicans of playing “political tricks” by waiting until the end of the session to raise questions.

“Now the National Rifle Association has joined them, parachuting into our state to muddy our Democratic process,” Palmer said. “While they are doing that, we are focusing on the next five months, where we will be having this conversation publicly, talking to voters throughout the state, and in November every Maine voter will have the chance to make their voices heard.”

Citizens initiatives are brought forward by voters though a signature-gathering and application process. While the Legislature can choose to enact the proposals, they typically send them to statewide referendum votes.

Maine’s Legislature held a public hearing last month on the only other citizen initiative currently pending. That proposal would require photo identification prior to voting in Maine and put new restrictions on absentee voting. It also is headed for a fall referendum vote.

Lawmakers also held a public hearing last year on the only citizen-initiated referendum they received in 2024, LD 2232, to limit contributions to political action committees that make independent expenditures. All four citizen initiatives in 2023 also received hearings.

Legislative records, however, show that no public hearing or vote to waive the hearing was held for an initiative in 2021 that was aimed at stopping the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line through western Maine.

At a committee work session on that initiative, a legislative analyst did not address whether lawmakers needed to hold a public hearing but did note some unique circumstances. Two weeks after the initiative was handed to the Legislature, lawmakers adjourned and the bill was carried over to a special session.

Sen. Dick Bradstreet, R-Vassalboro, the sponsor of the 2019 law to require public hearings, said Friday that the circumstances of the 2021 case were different because lawmakers are supposed to hold the hearing in the same session in which they receive it and in that case they had just received the proposal when they ended up adjourning. He said the reason no hearing was held in 2021 was “kind of a technicality.”

LD 1378, the bill resulting from the red flag citizen initiative, was transmitted to the Legislature on March 27, during the current session that’s scheduled to end June 18.

“You really can’t compare the two because in this case they’re choosing not to have the hearing, even though the legal requirements are there,” Bradstreet said. “Before, they could say they weren’t in the same session. … Now they’re kind of flouting the law.”

Bradstreet said he didn’t recall any outcry over the lack of a public hearing on the 2021 measure, but said there was less knowledge of the relatively new law at the time.

He said he put forward the bill in 2019 because of a handful of initiatives that had been put forward around that time that were generating a lot of advertising.

DISCERNING FACT FROM FICTION

“I thought, ‘How can people discern fact from fiction?'” Bradstreet said. “The only way to do that would be some type of hearing where people could question what the initiative does and what some repercussions would be, and where both sides would have a chance to present their arguments without the propaganda.”

In a late-night session Thursday, Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, rejected a proposal from Stewart to consider a formal waiver of the public hearing requirement to comply with state law, saying that his proposal was “not properly before the body.”

Daughtry said the Legislature’s rules take precedence over statutes passed by prior groups of lawmakers regarding legislative proceedings and that Stewart’s motion was asking for lawmakers to take an “unnecessary vote” on the citizens initiative. Daughtry also noted that the initiative was still before the Judiciary Committee, where she said it could have further action.

A spokesperson for Daughtry and Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, the Senate chair of the committee, said Friday that they would not comment on the calls for a public hearing. Rep. Amy Kuhn, D-Falmouth, the House chair of the committee, did not respond to a voicemail message or email.

Trahan, from the Sportsmen’s Alliance of Maine, said his group in conjunction with Gun Owners of Maine and the National Rifle Association will focus their lawsuit on the 2019 law and argue that lawmakers need to either hold the hearing or vote by a two-thirds majority to waive it. The group is also fundraising to support the effort.

Trahan said that just because lawmakers “got away with” not holding a hearing on the 2021 initiative, it does not mean it’s not required in the law.

“Why don’t they just make this easy and hold the public hearing?” he said. “There’s nothing to hide. Good public discourse adds to the debate.”