I agree with you about Proposition 8 and I also respect the right for California to have these initiatives coded into their Constitution. The SCOTUS was wrong... but these days they usually are... either by being politically active legislators from the bench or via cowardly evasiveness.
The SCOTUS nullified the will of the people of California through their cowardice. I would have preferred that they had stated that the Constitution of California contains the right of the people to modify it via the ballot initiative process and that it was a State matter and not within the power of the Federal Judiciary to legislate it otherwise. I also wish that roberts had not used "legislating from the bench" to declare obamacare a tax when the Federal government itself was arguing that it was not a tax... but we all suspect why roberts ruled the way that he did... and it was not a morally nor Constitutionally correct decision.
I realize that it is a niggling point but rights are endowed unto us by God whereas powers are granted by the people to government (local, state, federal, etc).
IMO we have to be very precise if we are to beat the left. In my state (Washington) we have a great social agitator named Tim Eyman. You can read about him here: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Tim_Eyman He has sponsored a bunch of great initiatives. He has lost more than he has won but he learned from each mistake and improved his initiatives until they were as close to bullet proof as possible.
Like I said, a bunch of his initiatives passed only to be killed by legal challenges. The lefties would study and pore over the things until they found flaws that they could exploit. The frustrating is that our left-dominated state legislature would routinely undo everything that Eyman (and The People) accomplished. That’s because the state legislature (representatives elected by The People) hold more concentrated power than The People whose only practical recourse is to toss them out of office by electing someone else.
This is why, as much as I appreciate the sentiment behind Prop 8, I knew that it wouldn’t survive in leftist-dominated California. The only way a law like that can stand is if the elected representatives (legislature and governor) support it.
If (we) don’t like it (we) need to throw the rascals out!
Article III, Section 2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the Supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Looks pretty explicit to me. The Supreme Court had jurisdiction to accept the appeal and issue the ruling it did.
The SCOTUS nullified the will of the people of California through their cowardice.
The Supreme Court nullified nothing. It sent the case back to the lower court.