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LeftCoast's Journal
OK...this article is written in 'high legalese' but in a nutshell it basically states that because the recent CA Supreme Court ruling established that gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marry any attempt to change this is actually a 'revision' to the state Constitution, not simply an 'amendment'. Revisions are only possible through a state constitutional convention or through the state legislature and then subject to voter approval.
The proposed initiative appears to now attempt to revise the California Constitution to remove the fundamental right to marry and equal protection that gays and lesbians are now afforded under the California Constitution.With that in mind, the Secretary of State must be aware of the following case: Rippon v. Bowen (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th 1308, 1313: Article XVIII of the California Constitution allows for amendment of the Constitution by the Legislature, or initiative and revision of the Constitution by the Legislature, or a constitutional convention. There is no other method for revising or amending the Constitution. (Livermore v. Waite (1894) 102 Cal. 113, 117, 36 P. 424 (Livermore).) “ ‘Amendment’ implies such an addition or change within the lines of the original instrument as will effect an improvement, or better carry out the purpose for which it was framed.” (Livermore, supra, 102 Cal. at pp. 118-119, 36 P. 424.) The “revision/amendment analysis has a dual aspect, requiring us to examine both the quantitative and qualitative effects of the measure on our constitutional scheme. Substantial changes in either respect could amount to a revision.” (Raven v. Deukmejian (1990) 52 Cal.3d 336, 350, 276 Cal.Rptr. 326, 801 P.2d 1077 (Raven).) “n enactment which is so extensive in its provisions as to change directly the ‘substantial entirety’ of the Constitution by the deletion or alteration of numerous existing provisions may well constitute a revision thereof. However, even a relatively simple enactment may accomplish such far reaching changes in the nature of our basic governmental plan as to amount to a revision also.” (Amador Valley Joint Union High Sch. Dist. v. State Bd. of Equalization (1978) 22 Cal.3d 208, 223, 149 Cal.Rptr. 239, 583 P.2d 1281 (Amador).) The rest isn't that long and it really is worth it to read the entire article if you can wade through the jargon.  Read the rest of the article here But I admire your effort!
K&R!  I just got it. Early birthday present.
Coolest toy I've gotten in a while. Welcome to the first weekly installment of the Good News Roundup!
All too often it seems like we get overwhelmed by bad news. Good things happen to though. This thread is intended as a place to post and discuss all of the good news that has happened in the last week. I'd like to encourage everyone to post any good news - whether it's political or personal - here. I'll start: Just 39% Believe Iraq Report Will Honestly Present Petraeus Views; 35% Say It Will Not Wednesday, September 05, 2007 Advertisment General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, will be issuing a formal progress report on the situation in Iraq next week. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 45% of American voters expect a positive report while 24% expect the opposite. Thirty-one percent (31%) are not sure. However, just 39% believe the report will honestly and accurately reflect the General’s true assessment of the situation in Iraq. Thirty-five percent (35%) say it will not while 26% are not sure. As with all polling questions on the topic of Iraq, there is a sharp divide along partisan lines. Republicans, by a 62% to 14% margin, expect a positive report. Democrats are evenly divided with 34% anticipating a positive report and 31% with the opposite view. Forty-two percent (42%) of those not affiliated with either major party say the report will be positive and 25% of unaffiliateds say negative. By a 58% to 22% margin, Republicans expect the report to honestly reflect the views of Petraeus. Just 25% of Democrats share that assessment while 43% say the report will not accurately reflect what Petraeus thinks. Unaffiliateds are evenly divided. -snip- Judge strikes down part of Patriot Act NEW YORK (Reuters) - A provision of the Patriot Act that requires people who are formally contacted by the FBI for information to keep it a secret is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero sided with the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit and argued that an FBI letter requesting information -- called a National Security Letter -- is effectively a gag order but without the authorization of a judge. The FBI tells people who receive the letters to keep them secret, but recipients can challenge the secrecy order in court under a 2006 congressional amendment to the NSL law. The law says judges must defer to the FBI's view that secrecy is necessary, undermining the judiciary's check on the power of the executive branch, the ACLU said. -snip- Conservative ‘Club’ Clipped by Big FEC Fine Citizens Club for Growth Inc., a highly visible conservative activist organization, agreed to pay a $350,000 penalty to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for failing to register with the agency as a political committee and report its contributions and expenditures. The group, which has recently undergone a reorganization, is one of a number of groups that organized with the Internal Revenue Service under Section 527 of the tax code primarily to conduct “issues advocacy,” but have drawn loud criticisms for running independent advertising during political campaigns that appeared clearly aimed at persuading viewers to vote for or (more often) against a candidate — a form of electioneering communication that comes under the regulatory purview of the FEC and the fundraising limitations under federal campaign finance laws. The Club for Growth has been involved in dozens of congressional campaigns, and received considerable attention during the 2004 Republican Senate primary contest in Pennsylvania when the group sought to discredit the incumbent, GOP moderate Arlen Specter, as insufficiently conservative. Then-Rep. Patrick J. Toomey, the Club-backed candidate who came within 2 percentage points of upsetting Specter, is now the president of Club for Growth. The agreement announced Wednesday would end a pending court case between the two parties, and if the deal is approved, it would be the largest civil penalty the FEC ever collected after an enforcement case has moved to litigation. -snip- Please keep kicked by contributing your own good news and comments! Happy Friday everyone!  And we never heard about it?
 -snip- As laid out by the commission’s report to Congress and other sources, the event at the Nuclear Fuel Service factory was discovered when a supervisor saw a yellow liquid dribbling under a door and into a hallway. Workers had previously described a yellow liquid in a “glove box,” a sealed container with gloves built into the sides to allow a technician to manipulate objects inside, but managers had decided it was ordinary uranium. In fact, it was highly enriched uranium that had been declared surplus from the weapons inventory of the Energy Department and sent to the plant to be diluted to a strength appropriate for a civilian reactor. In a puddle, the uranium is not particularly hazardous, but if it formed a more spherical shape, the commission says, it could become a “critical mass,” a quantity and shape of nuclear fuel sufficient to sustain a chain reaction, in this case outside a reactor. According to the letter sent by the lawmakers, the puddle, containing about nine gallons, reached to within four feet of an elevator pit. Had it flowed into the pit and reached a depth of several inches, it would have been in a shape that might have supported a chain reaction. The letter from the congressmen says the agency’s report suggests “that it was merely a matter of luck that a criticality accident did not occur.” Read the full story here I really thought that nothing could shock me anymore (not after so many years under the Bush regime) but I was wrong. This just blows me away. |
Profile Information  LeftCoast
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