Prop 8 aftermath

I haven't written in quite some time; I really haven't felt outraged by anything enough to do so. I was just thinking about this the other day, and I realize that this is old news, but I really wanted to write about why exactly Prop 8 is not a good idea.

Prop 8 in the California Supreme Court case Strauss v. Horton was ruled to be an amendment, rather than a revision to the California Constitution. A revision is defined as a "substantial alteration of the entire constitution rather than to a less extensive change in one or more of its provisions". That's fine, Prop 8 probably was an amendment, rather than a revision. It inserted only one sentence into the Constitution. Here's why that's not okay. If the legal precedent as to what's an amendment and what's a revision is based solely on the length of the change, numerous dangerous 'amendments' could be passed with a simple majority of voters. Imagine what could've happened if, in reaction to the 1948 California Supreme Court ruling Perez v. Sharp, which struck down California's anti-miscegenation law much in the same way that In re Marriage Cases struck down Proposition 22, voters could've gone out and changed the constitution, continuing that bigoted practice of prohibiting inter-racial marriage. Granted, all anti-miscegenation laws in the country were declared unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia on 12 June 1967, eighteen years later. The Briggs Initiative of 1978 is another example. State Senator John Briggs put this on the ballot for voters. If passed it would've banned all openly gay teachers from teaching. It also would've allowed for the firing of anyone supporting gay rights. Throughout the campaign, it looked as though it was going to pass, but thanks to gay rights activists Harvey Milk and Tom Ammiano, it failed 58%-41%. While we can all be grateful for its failure, the point is that it's dangerous that such radical reforms can be passed so easily. With a little bit of bigotry, many people's lives could've been affected negatively had Perez been struck down or the Briggs Initiative been passed. While I don't argue that Prop 8 is legally an amendment, I question the wisdom of such a provision to the Constitution.

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