The three-member panel, Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Michael Hawkins and N. Randy Smith, made its view clear Tuesday: that California's initiative process "would appear to be ill-served" if elected officials could nullify a voter-approved initiative by refusing to defend it.

But the judges said they need advice from the California Supreme Court, the final interpreter of state law, on whether sponsors of an initiative can defend it on their own. The federal court would use that advice to decide whether the case could proceed, a decision that the U.S. Supreme Court might ultimately review.