Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Marriage in California   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Dale Carpenter, a right-leaning supporter of same-sex marriage, has worthwhile thoughts on the topic. I found the post via Josh Patashnik, who defends gay-rights activists for going to the courts to get their policy imposed. "Recall that in 2000, Californians passed Proposition 22, an initiative statute banning gay marriage. Under California law, an initiative statute can only be overturned by another initiative, not by act of the legislature . . . . As a result, there was no real legislative route open to gay rights activists." Well sure, but couldn't they have run an initiative of their own at any point in the last eight years? Patashnik may be right that going through the courts made strategic sense for the cause, but I take him (perhaps I incorrectly take him) to be implying that Prop 22 left the activists with no choice—and they had the choice to defer to the procedures Californians have established to change the law.

11/05 10:41 PMShare