Voters in Massachusetts will not decide this November whether to end the state’s decades-old ban on rent control, after the state’s highest court killed a proposed ballot question in a win for landlords and real estate groups.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday ruled that the proposed initiative was unfit for the ballot because it included an exemption for housing units in “facilities operated solely for religious purposes.” Under the Massachusetts Constitution, certain subjects, including religion, cannot be decided through the initiative petition process.
