For the record, I agree strongly with Proposition 8 opponents that the measure was a constitutional revision and not an amendment. (It was the one major contribution I made besides my ones to the Green Party.)

That said, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is either being VERY disingenuous or else incredibly out of the loop in gay activism.

I have it on fairly good authority that a fair amount of gay activists WANTED Prop. 8 on the ballot in the first place.

Reading, or hugely MISreading, the political tea leaves in the Golden State, gay rights supporters thought this was the ideal place to get the first ballot-box victory in the country.

And, due to the Religious Right, and somewhat the Mormons, they were hugely wrong.

So, instead of making the "key legal arguments" nine months ago, they're being made now.

My ideal solution, were I a Solomonic member of the California Supreme Court?

Rule that Prop. 9 was indeed a revision, while --

Severely fining California, and even national, if necessary, gay rights leaders under any possible statute. Barratry, for the lawyers involved, perhaps?

On an issue like this, you take the victory however you can get it.

Assuming that, as I've been told, this was a strategy, was incredibly stupid.