If opponents of California's Proposal 8, which bans gay marriage, want to blame someone for the passage of the measure, they should start by blaming the judges who forced the issue in the face of strong opposition from California's voters. Instead, the left is blaming Christians for running a better campaign than they did.
Prop 8 succeeded because gay marriage was imposed by the judges on the voters of California, when they had already objected to it. The judges overstepped their authority, and there was a wave of resentment that went along with it. The U.S. Constitution makes it clear that marriage regulations are a reserved power for the states to decide. Activist judges like to assume this power for themselves.
Voters had already approved Proposal 22 in 2000 with 61% of the vote, which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Five years later, the courts overturned Prop 22. Legal challenges tied up the issue until May of this year, when the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages, to take effect in mid-June. Almost immediately, a new ballot proposal started gaining strength in the shape of Prop 8.
The feelings of the voters haven't changed that much. And they threw the issue back into the faces of the activist judges, who will almost certainly overturn it again, in another display of judicial activism. This debate will never go away.
Every state in the union has to decide this issue for themselves, and some definitely have, with varying degrees of judicial intervention. I continue to oppose any federal involvement in what is, under the Constitution, a state matter. Federal judges need to let the state supreme courts have the final say in matters related to state powers.
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