Prop. 8: Now what?

[brooksmoses]

Assuming it passes -- which, given the current results with nearly all the votes counted, looks likely -- what then?

Well, San Francisco "City Attorney Dennis Herrera will file [a] legal challenge in the California Supreme Court if the measure passes." The argument, as I understand it, is that Prop. 8 is not merely an amendment to the state constitution, but a revision thereof, and only simple amendments can be done by ballot initiative -- at least, that was the basis of a legal challenge when the proposition was put on the ballot, which the Court decided not to hear apparently on grounds of not wanting to deal with it until it was voted on. There may also be an argument against the proposition on grounds that it leaves things not internally consistent.

Having read most of the information I can find on the amendment-vs.-revision distinction, I don't think it's at all clear which way the Court is likely to decide on that issue. Or, for that matter, if it is declared an amendment, whether or not taking it back off the constitution would also be an amendment.

Meanwhile: Seventy million dollars? Spent on this? That amounts to about seven dollars for every voter who voted on the issue. I find this absurd, and a bit sad.

Comments

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I'd kind of like to see it thrown out on that basis. There would be whining about the judiciary, but a statement that the ballot measure was not sufficient would still nullify the measure, and state the course, going forward, to make the change (which will then fail, I assume).

[night-princess.livejournal.com]

Yes, the $70M figured bothered me a lot too. No matter how much of it was spent on the winning or losing side, that figure represents a massive fail. More than "a bit sad", I was upset even before the voting started when I read about how much money was spent. We're in harsh economic times, and those people can afford to waste money on one sentence? Some of them even spent money lining the pockets of Madison Avenue to influence laws outside their own states. It shows how messed up people's priorities are. I think it's very sad that No on 8 stooped to try to match Yes on 8's ad spending.

Besides, whether a proposition wins or loses should never be about how much money is spent on TV ads. If it is -- if the reaction to that sentence is to try to tell me to "be realistic", then liberty, freedom, democracy has already lost. If the vote can be tainted by dollars spent on media, then we already have no liberties except what Big Media allows us.