Opinion: Proposition 8: Opening up the picture of revision

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Justice Joyce Kennard asks a key question about whether the court has ever held that a constitutional revision must involve solely a sweeping change to the organizational structure of state government. Up to this point, the only cases in which the court has found a law to be an illegal revision have involved long, complicated changes to the organization of government; in order to find Proposition 8 a revision, it would have to decide that a narrow change to civil rights would also constitute a revision.

The answer, she suggests, is no. Christopher Krueger, representing Attorney General Jerry Brown, argues that Proposition 8 is an amendment, but an illegal one. Just to make it clear, Brown wants Proposition 8 struck down, but on the grounds that it revokes an inalienable right without a compelling cause. Krueger’s argument against revision is that the court hasn’t ruled that way in the past.