Prop 8 News

So, as I understand it the federal courts have sent the Prop 8 case back to the state courts to clarify California law regarding standing.

Basically, normally the state of California would be the one to appeal when one of its laws is found unconstitutional. But in this case "the state of California" was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, and they both decided they have better things to do with their time. So the people who actually sponsored Prop 8, who have absolutely nothing better to do with their time, would like to be able to spearhead the appeal instead. And the law is ambiguous as to whether they can or not.

On the one hand, if they can't...yay! Prop 8 goes to the dust bin of history!

On the other hand, if they can't...it would establish the precedent that any governor and any attorney general could opt not to fight for any law, even one that I liked

On the other hand, who cares! I hate all initiatives anyways. Another way more of them can die!

On the other hand, would this apply to other laws? Laws passed by the legislature? How would this play out with the two constituencies problem? (Essentially...since California legislature districting is based on all residents, whereas the statewide offices are elected by voters, the legislature gives more representation to those areas that have more residents that aren't voters (children, immigrants, lazy people) than the statewide races do, making the governor pretty consistently more conservative than the median legislator.)

I think I hope that the Prop 8 supporters don't have standing, because they're bastards. But I think it's also worth thinking about the wider ramifications, even if I'm not sure what those are at this point. And even if they do have standing, it's not the end of the world. That just gives them standing to make their incredibly weak case to the Federal Court, and this whole process is going to take years anyways...and time is not on their side.