Live Blog Archive
Highlights from Tuesday’s Prop 8 Hearing
Oral arguments have been completed. Here's a wrap up on today's hearing:
It seems clear to us that the hearing before the California Supreme Court could not have gone better for the proponents of Proposition 8. There was no justice who appeared to be supportive of the position of Ted Olsen that an initiative proponent cannot intervene to defend their initiative and that an initiative must go undefended if the governor and attorney general refuse to do so. At a bare minimum, the court is likely to issue a ruling noting that state law gives initiative proponents liberal standing to intervene. More likely, the court could find that initiative proponents have a particularized interest in their initiative such that they may stand in the shoes of the state when state officials, as here, refuse to defend an initiative enacted by the people themselves. Otherwise, the law would confer on the governor and attorney general a right to nullify an initiative, a right never contemplated by the California Constitution.
Remember, the issues in this particular hearing arise in response to a question from the Ninth circuit as to the right of an initiative proponent to appeal Vaughn Walker’s ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. There can be little doubt that at least Presiding Justice Stephen Reinhart WANTS the proponents to have standing, because that is the only way the Ninth Circuit can issue a ruling on the merits.
It seems crystal clear that Justice Reinhart is going to get his wish. The proponents will be granted standing to appeal, and the Ninth Circuit will then deal with the merits of the case – is Proposition 8 unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution?
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