BY JULIA CHEEVER Bay City News A marriage equality group asked the California Supreme Court in San Francisco today to remove from the November state ballot an initiative that would ban same-sex marriage. Equality California argued in a lawsuit filed directly in the high court that the measure would be a state constitutional revision, not an amendment, and would therefore require more elaborate procedures for passage. While a constitutional amendment can be enacted by a voter initiative alone, a proposed revision must be approved by two-thirds of each house of the Legislature before being submitted to state voters. Lawyers for the civil rights group wrote that the initiative slated for the Nov. 4 ballot is a revision because it would “alter the underlying principles on which the California Constitution is based.” The measure would change the document “by severely compromising the core constitutional principle of equal citizenship (and) depriving a vulnerable minority of fundamental rights,” the lawsuit alleges. Attorney Stephen Bomse said, “We filed this lawsuit because the sponsors of the initiative haven’t followed the very constitution they’re trying to change. “For good reason, there’s a strict process for making revisions to our constitution and it’s more involved than simply collecting petition signatures,” Bomse said. The ballot measure would amend the state constitution to require that “only marriage between a man and a wom ...
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BY JULIA CHEEVER Bay City News A marriage equality group asked the California Supreme Court in San Francisco today to remove from the November state ballot an initiative that would ban same-sex marriage. Equality California argued in a lawsuit filed directly in the high court that the measure would be a state constitutional revision, not an amendment, and would therefore require more elaborate procedures for passage. While a constitutional amendment can be enacted by a voter initiative alone, a proposed revision must be approved by two-thirds of each house of the Legislature before being submitted to state voters. Lawyers for the civil rights group wrote that the initiative slated for the Nov. 4 ballot is a revision because it would “alter the underlying principles on which the California Constitution is based.” The measure would change the document “by severely compromising the core constitutional principle of equal citizenship (and) depriving a vulnerable minority of fundamental rights,” the lawsuit alleges. Attorney Stephen Bomse said, “We filed this lawsuit because the sponsors of the initiative haven’t followed the very constitution they’re trying to change. “For good reason, there’s a strict process for making revisions to our constitution and it’s more involved than simply collecting petition signatures,” Bomse said. The ballot measure would amend the state constitution to require that “only marriage between a man and a wom ...