California Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument on Proposition H8

Well, they're off, in theory, as argument was supposed to begin at 9 a. m. PST. I have been unable to access the sites that are supposed to live stream the arguments. Like this one. But they are supposed to last 3 hours, so I guess I can just try again in a bit.

The LA Times reported that the demonstrations in front of the court were "slow to start," but I don't think that a "couple of hundred" people who were there an hour before the hearing even started is really a "slow" start when it comes to demonstrating in front of court houses.

However you feel about the issue, there are some interesting questions before the court. Such as, is this a "revision" of the constitution rather than an "amendment" because prop 8 "revised" the previously interpreted breadth of the Equal Protection clause? Or is it an amendment since it only revised an interpretation of the EPC, rather than the EPC itself?

I heard that the Supreme Court has rejected such challenges in the past, but I'm not sure if any of them dealt with the EPC which, I think everyone would acknowledge, is in a more fundamental and separate category from the rest of the (enormous) California Constitution.

Even if the court does uphold the proposition, what of the people already married? Should it be retroactive?

Tough questions. I guess we'll know in 90 days or less.