Quote:
Originally Posted by ratbastid
It's not up to the legislature to ensure the laws they pass are constitutional--including laws they delegate to popular vote for decisions on. Those laws, once signed, become law, and then if their constitutionality is questionable, a case testing the law comes before the Supreme Court, where its constitutionality is decided. That's what's happening here. There's no will of the people being contravened here. (Especially considering the travesty that the Prop 8 campaign was--it's pretty clear that the outcome is NOT the will of the majority of Californians, so...)
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I'm not certain this is true. All members of legislature swear an oath to uphold the Constitution (U.S. or state). I think that when they knowingly write a law that is clearly unconstitutional they have violated their oath and should be impeached.
As for Prop 8, my understanding is that the people voted a referendum to amend their state constitution - thus making it unconstitutional to have same sex marriages. So, now the Supreme Court must ask whether this change to their state constitution violates the federal constitution. My guess is that SCOTUS will not hear this case and that California will retain the change to their constitution. I don't agree with outlawing homosexual civil unions, but the referendum vote is the way "the people" have every right to change their laws without the use of legislators.
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Last edited by Cimarron29414; 01-13-2010 at 02:31 PM..
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