Brief Words on the Prop 8 Ruling

It is really unfortunate that protection of minority rights against majority tyranny is only an incidental part of the structure of California's state government.

It's also unfortunate that such protection was just "make the majority say they really mean it". Even small obstacles to constitutional amendment ballot initiatives, like those provided by Massachusetts (a one-fourth vote of two consecutive sessions of the legislature), can be significant. Sky-is-falling arguments simply don't work when people have a little time to realize that, actually, it's not.

I'm not saying that the ruling is (necessarily) technically wrong, or that overturning Prop 8 wouldn't have provoked some sort of crisis, but that's of little comfort (and shouldn't necessarily be of any relevance) to those currently being deprived of rights their neighbors can exercise freely.

At least people aren't being forcibly divorced, although I wonder how that will affect the political battle going forward.