I'm not. The California legislators have tried twice to make gay marriage legal without the courts' intervention. Things will need to change a lot before they start trying to make it illegal.
I was thinking about a constitutional amendment by initiative, which I believe only needs a simple majority of voters to pass (stupid rule). Because of the way California's districts are set up, it is entirely possible for the people to significantly disagree with what the legislature does and yet not be able to vote them out because even though they might have the majority in all of California, they won't have a majority in the right districts.
Then again, you appear to know much more about the issue than I do. What class was this in? How is it that you're so familiar with all these previous legal cases? Can you point me to a reference online where I can get that kind of background, too?
The oral argument wasn't shown for a class, a group just set it up in an open classroom. In fact, I skipped a class to go watch it.
Most of the above information I just got from the oral argument itself, but I got a good background on it all from my Constitutional Law class. I've read the Lawrence opinions myself, but not Bowers. I would definitely recommend reading the Lawrence opinion, concurrence, and dissent, and then look up concepts like "equal protection" and "substantive due process" on Wikipedia.
I was thinking about a constitutional amendment by initiative, which I believe only needs a simple majority of voters to pass (stupid rule). Because of the way California's districts are set up, it is entirely possible for the people to significantly disagree with what
the legislature does and yet not be able to vote them out because even though they might have the majority in all of California, they won't have a majority in the right districts.
Then again, you appear to know much more about the issue than I do. What class was this in? How is it that you're so familiar with all these previous legal cases? Can you point me to a reference online where I can get that kind of background, too?
The oral argument wasn't shown for a class, a group just set it up in an open classroom. In fact, I skipped a class to go watch it.
Most of the above information I just got from the oral argument itself, but I got a good background on it all from my Constitutional Law class. I've read the Lawrence opinions myself, but not Bowers. I would definitely recommend reading the Lawrence opinion, concurrence, and dissent, and then look up concepts like "equal protection" and "substantive due process" on Wikipedia.
Reply
Leave a comment