The CA Supreme Court upheld Prop 8 this morning.
Petitioners' argued that Prop 8 constituted a revision to the state constitution, rather than a mere amendment. A ballot initiative like Prop 8 would not be sufficient to revise the state constitution.
The CA Supreme Court justices rejected that argument, holding that the only right granted to same-sex couples (by earlier court decisions and by CA's Domestic Partner Act)--and taken away by Prop 8--was the official designation of the term "marriage".
Then, considering the fate of some 18,000 same-sex couples married in CA before the passage of Prop 8, the court holds simply that the amendment cannot be applied retroactively, and the marriages stand.
It's hard to understand why the court, which seemed to hold in Marriage cases that the designation "marriage" was a critical component of the right to marry found in the state constitution, would hold now that the designation "marriage" is trivial.
At page 35, the court stops referring to the rights they say Prop 8 cannot effect by the name "right to marry" and instead refers to them as "the constitutional right to establish, with the person of one's choice, an officially recognized and protected family relationship that enjoys all of the constitutionally based incidents of marriage".
So in other words, this is actually the best the court can do--construe Prop 8 as limiting nothing other than the use of the term "marriage".
There is a protest rally TONIGHT May 26, at 6:00 pm. Meet up at Camelback and 7th Avenue.