A friend of the law

This is from my friend Scott, a very successful and capable legal mind here in LA. He has this to say about the current campaign against Prop 8.

As far as my legal take, it is really disgusting/troubling that civil rights are being put to a POPULAR VOTE. If desegregation had been put to a popular vote in Alabama in the 1950s, which way would things have come out? A long-recognized role of courts is to take a counter-majoritarian role if necessary and protect minorities from widely held prejudices or passions. It's one thing to amend the Constitution to require chicken coops to be bigger....quite another to strip human beings of civil liberties that the state supreme court has ruled are rightfully theirs. The Constitution should not be so easy to amend. That said, I am not sure I want to see this overturned in the courts. That may just turn more people against us. I think we have to regroup, work really hard in the next 4 years or more to change hearts and minds, and have another go at it. It's frustrating to wait but the next time it gets on the ballot we need to be confident we can win.