CA Prop 8 |SR 7 & HR 5: Inappropriately Violates Separation of Powers.
February 24, 2009
CA Prop 8 |SR 7 & HR 5: Inappropriate Measures because they Violate Separation of Powers.
One commentator got “separation of powers” and “separation of church and state” mixed up in a discussion. I thought it might be good to review how our state government works.
Lucky for me, Euripedes wrote a great post here and Chairm made an excellent comment that I think breaks down what happened with Prop 8 & the upcoming supreme court decision which I think also sheds some light on the SR 7 and HR 5 problem.
From Chairm:
The marriage amendment, approved by the People, clarifies and “protects California’s constitutional understanding of marriage by defining it as a union between one man and one woman.”
The judiciary is not empowered to amend the state constitution. There is an amending process for that and the marriage amendment fullfilled the requirements of that process.
Prior to the election, the ballot measure passed through all the hurdles including judicial review. If it was a really a revision rather than an amendment, then, it would not have reached the ballot. A revision requires a significantly different process.
The Court is powerless to remove the marriage amendment from the text of the CA state constitution. The amending process clearly says that upon the vote of the majority the amendment is activated.
The Court is powerless to revise the state constitution by granting itself supreme authority to nullify any part of the state constitution. Each word of the constitution is meaningful. The marriage amendment added clarity where the court had misconstrued the meaning of marrige.
If the CA court attacks the marriage amendment, it would declare itself a superlegislature and it would treat citizens as mere subjects. For that it has no constitutional authority to do.
It is also a wrong for the legislature to overtly attempt to influence the judiciary by passing SR 7 and HR 5.
Then entire discussion is really interesting: Euripides| The California Supreme Court and Same Sex Marriage: Natural and Civil Rights
Entry Filed under: politics, prop 8. Tags: chairm, euripides, hr 5, pro 8, separation of powers, sr 7.
1.
Euripides | February 25, 2009 at 12:16 am
Thanks PA. These ideas are, I think, at the core of the political debate. There are other aspects to the debate as well: social, moral, religious.