Amanda Shaw reports on the First Things blog that the Supreme Court of California is considering the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative passed last November that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. At issue is how marriage should be defined vis a vis human rights. Shaw writes:
“To hear media accounts of legal rights, a particular definition of marriage is assumed, and assumed to be fixed, while that definition is precisely what is in question. Today, the proposition is being challenged on the basis that it was improperly posed and passed as an amendment, while in fact—by supposedly restricting minority rights—it falls into the more radical category of constitutional revisions, which may not be introduced by ballot initiative. (See previous discussion here.) Additionally, some opponents circuitously claim that Prop 8, by reversing last summer’s court decision, limits judicial authority and hence violates constitutional separation of powers. It’s a strange notion of democracy.”
This is an important development. Read the rest here.
