Proposition 8, meet Proposition 14...
Considering what I've been reading on California Proposition 8, its entirely possible that the case Reitman v. Mulkey (a case involving California Proposition 14 which was declared an amendment to the California Constitution unconstitutional because it promoted racial discrimination) could be cited in the federal case against California Proposition 8, Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Should it be cited as promoting discrimination and ruled unconstitutional, this would be a huge blow to those states whose populous have been using the initiative process to enact state constitutional amendments on the issue. The ruling on Perry v. Schwarzenegger should be in the coming months and there has been a considerable amount of testimony in the trial.
As for the whole process, there is still a considerable amount uncertainty. Even though the case is viewed as likely going to reach the United States Supreme Court, that court may ultimately not rule the Proposition as unconstitutional potentially overturning any ruling from the lower Federal courts and sustaining the ruling of the California Supreme Court.
I find the state court lawsuits to have been misguided, the issue of between Proposition 8 being either a "Constitutional Revision" or "Constitutional Amendment" says to me they were desperate, but they were using the very unstable legal ground the California Supreme Court itself created in past issues with certain broad state constitutional amendments. A good argument based on the equal protection of the laws clause of the 14th Amendment would have been a much better alternative and likely would have gone much farther.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_%282008%29 (Proposition 8)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss_v._Horton (The Prop 8 case that went through the California courts)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_v._Schwarzenegger (The new case through the federal courts)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_14_%281963%29 (Proposition 14)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reitman_v._Mulkey (The Prop 14 case)
Then again I could be wrong on the whole Reitman v. Mulkey case as I'm no lawyer and I don't see things through their eyes but from what I've learned to understand on my own.
-- John O.
As for the whole process, there is still a considerable amount uncertainty. Even though the case is viewed as likely going to reach the United States Supreme Court, that court may ultimately not rule the Proposition as unconstitutional potentially overturning any ruling from the lower Federal courts and sustaining the ruling of the California Supreme Court.
I find the state court lawsuits to have been misguided, the issue of between Proposition 8 being either a "Constitutional Revision" or "Constitutional Amendment" says to me they were desperate, but they were using the very unstable legal ground the California Supreme Court itself created in past issues with certain broad state constitutional amendments. A good argument based on the equal protection of the laws clause of the 14th Amendment would have been a much better alternative and likely would have gone much farther.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_%282008%29 (Proposition 8)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss_v._Horton (The Prop 8 case that went through the California courts)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_v._Schwarzenegger (The new case through the federal courts)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_14_%281963%29 (Proposition 14)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reitman_v._Mulkey (The Prop 14 case)
Then again I could be wrong on the whole Reitman v. Mulkey case as I'm no lawyer and I don't see things through their eyes but from what I've learned to understand on my own.
-- John O.