Jerry Brown and Prop 8

Jerry Brown filed a brief with the CA Supremes saying they should invalidate Prop 8. There are sensible arguments to do this, but he managed to avoid all of them. The best argument to invalidate Prop 8 is that it so modified the Constitution that it's a revision, not an amendment, and because revisions need to be proposed by the legislature first, it went through the wrong process and so it's unconstitutional. It's probably a losing argument, but it's at least sane. Here's Jerry's argument:

Amendments should be subject to the same tests as laws by the legislature to see if they are constitutional. That is, you consider whether the amendment would be unconstitutional if passed by the legislature. If so, it's unconstitutional as an amendment. He misses the point of the amendment process. You amend the constitution to change it. If you can only pass amendments that are already approved by the Constitution, then there's no way to amend the Constitution and there's no reason to ever seek an amendment. What the crap?

As my brother said, if it's in the Constitution, it's constitutional.