In California, a ballot proposition is a proposed law submitted to the electorate for approval in a direct vote (or plebiscite). A ballot initiative is an example of how California does some of its laws.
In the United States, the U.S. Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, whatever any State may try to do notwithstanding.
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in 2008 by the people. In 2000, a similar law, proposition 22 was passed by the people and was also stuck down, this time by the California Supreme Court. That's twice the people voted to protect the centuries-old definition of traditional marriage and were yet rebuffed by their rulers.
In the United States, the U.S. Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, whatever any State may try to do notwithstanding.
Both these initiatives are also examples of how it's okay with some people here that a few individuals in black robes can tell the pions what's best for them.
The U.S. Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the Land, created the Judiciary and tasked them with settling disputes between the people and their government. In every case, there's a side that wins and one that loses with the losing side accusing the Court of engaging in activism. That was the case with Prop 8 as it was with Burwell vs Hobby Lobby.
It's also interesting to note that in States and in some European countries that vote for gay-marriage (recent example Ireland), that's considered okay. But when the people vote for traditional marriage the religious rights of the majority are never considered okay or worthy of protection.
You can vote to protect rights or strike down laws that are deemed unconstitutional, but not to enact unconstitutional laws. California can vote to strike down all laws restricting gun ownership, but no number of people can vote to make gun ownership illegal in California, because that would be unconstitutional and in violation of the Supreme Law of the Land.
The purpose of a Constitutional Republic is to control the majority and deny them the power to violate the God-given and Constitutionally-protected rights of the individual. In doing so, the rights of the minorities are protected and by extent, the rights of all the people at large.
Prop 8 and similar measures are direct democracy and direct democracy is Communism, pure and simple and we all have the tendency to embrace Communism when it suits our purposes and supports our causes.
In 1788, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison expressed his concerns over the violation of the Bill of Rights by State legislatures:
"Repeated violations of those parchment barriers have been committed by overbearing majorities in every State. In Virginia I have seen the bill of rights violated in every instance where it has been opposed to a popular current."Thank God that we still have remnants of a Constitution to protect us from such actions.
