Reply #46: No, it simply doesn't. [View All]

[Unvanguard]

I'm not sure why you think it would.

Prop. 8 does not say, "California courts may not apply strict scrutiny to equal protection cases." Prop. 8 says, "Only marriages between a man and a woman are valid or recognized in California." (That's from memory, the wording may be slightly off.)

The motive behind the amendment, its supporters can easily argue, was not any objection to equal protection as such, but rather an objection to a particular court interpretation of equal protection in a single legal context. And, indeed, the wording itself is tailored to that end: it has no implications whatsoever for cases that don't relate to same-sex marriage.

As I said to Anti-Fascist, it seems to me that the substantive part of this complaint would be directed more justly not at Prop. 8 but at California's easy amendment process, which does indeed broadly allow for this sort of abuse. But the courts cannot overturn that.