Part 3 - The California Supreme Court’s Delicate Position with Respect to the Challenge to the Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Proposition 8, and the Hurdle fo

As Alan Brownstein and I wrote in the last column in this series, the California Supreme Court finds itself in a delicate institutional position as it takes up the validity of California's voter-passed ban on gay marriage, Proposition 8. One side argues that Proposition 8 is a valid "amendment" to the state constitution that permissibly overturned the court's ruling last May recognizing gay marriage. The other side contends that Proposition 8 is, instead, a procedurally-flawed attempt to "revise" the state constitution. In deciding which view is correct, the court will essentially be superintending one of the key processes that were designed to check and balance the power of the court itself. For this reason, the court will have to be somewhat circumspect as it tries to give meaning to the amendment/revision dichotomy in this context. In this column, I will offer a few observations on the court's delicate task.

More here.