Politics & Government

Could Prop. 8 Ruling Also Torpedo Prop. 13?

Some experts say the U.S. Supreme Court inadvertently undercut California's voter-initiative process.

Story by City News Service, posted by Roy Rivenburg

Does Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court decision pave the way for California officials to undo Prop. 13 and other voter initiatives they dislike?

Yes, say three legal experts.

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By ruling that Prop. 8 supporters had no legal standing to appeal a lower-court decision against the measure, the justices opened a troubling door, UC Irvine political science professor Charles Smith said.

"As [Supreme Court Justice Anthony] Kennedy points out in his dissent, it's really problematic if the governor and attorney general choose not to defend an initiative [as happened with Prop. 8] and nobody else can," Smith said. "It really undermines the initiative process in a profound way."

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"It was a little weasely," Smith said of the Prop. 8 ruling. "Under the guise of states' rights, they're trampling on states' rights. ... From a federalist standpoint, I don't think they want that outcome, but I think [Chief Justice John] Roberts was stuck in a difficult position."

Chapman University professor John Eastman, a same-sex marriage opponent active with the National Organization for Marriage, agreed with Smith and said Gov. Jerry Brown was acting "utterly lawless" for abandoning attempts to challenge the lower-court ruling against Prop. 8, which outlawed gay marriage.

"This is a manipulative shell game to accomplish an end he could not achieve at the ballot box," Eastman said.

The ruling on Prop. 8 could be used to try to invalidate Prop. 13 or other initiatives, Eastman said.

Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine Law School's founding dean, agreed the ruling could undermine the initiative process in California. He said it's wrong to let the governor and attorney general effectively overrule a referendum backed by millions of voters by simply refusing to defend it in court.

Chemerinsky proposed the state create a way for the governor or attorney general to appoint special counsel to handle legal challenges to initiatives.


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