California Supreme Court Upholds Prop 8 And Same-Gender Marriages That Took Place Before It Passed

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On the one hand the court ruled that "applying well-established legal principles pertinent to the question whether a constitutional provision should be interpreted to apply prospectively or retroactively, we conclude that the new section cannot properly be interpreted to apply retroactively. Accordingly, the marriages of same-sex couples performed prior to the effective date of Proposition 8 remain valid and must continue to be recognized in this state."

The court concluded, however, that "in a sense, petitioners' and the Attorney General's complaint is that it is just too easy to amend the California Constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it. If the process for amending the constitution is to be restricted -- perhaps in the manner it was explicitly limited in an earlier version of our state constitution ... or as limited in the present-day constitutions of some of our sister states ... this is an effort that the people themselves may undertake through the process of amending their constitution in order to impose further limitations upon their own power of initiative."

Rallies are planned across California in response to the court's ruling. Here is a news report from one such rally:


The truth is that this court was painted into a corner. The Attorney General of CA was arguing that Prop 8 constituted a "revision" to the CA constitution requiring it go before lawmakers, while the other side said it was clearly a legal constitutional amendment as set forth by the intiative process. Had the court ruled differently they would have been going against all relevant precedent and they would have been setting a dangerous precedent themselves. Not to mention the fact that they also would have clearly been going against the will of a majority of Californians who legally used the initiative process to amend the CA constitution in a manner prescribed by law. The court clearly made the right call, but it was not unexpected. Visit http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/26/state/n155353D85.DTL&type=health from the AP about how experts are not surprised by the ruling to uphold Prop 8. Tweet