Six state governments have jointly sought a review, setting up a rare confrontation over legislative competence. For those following closely, the signs had been building for a while; for everyone else, the announcement landed with the force of genuine surprise.
The roots of this moment go back several years. Successive attempts at reform stalled at the same obstacles: fragmented authority, contested data, and the absence of a political window wide enough to act. What changed, according to people involved in the process, was a quiet alignment of interests that had previously pulled in opposite directions.
