With Prop. 8 in the constitution, there is a compelling government interest to define marriage as between a man and a woman- compliance with the state constitution, a compelling a government interest as any.

You misunderstand the nature of a compelling interest. It has to be a interest of the people, not an interest of the law. Also, your logic is circular: ‘Prop 8 is not in conflict with the Constit because it complies with itself’. That is not likely to be a consideration of the court.

And the courts have already found that “a word” cannot be used to separate gay citizens from heterosexual citizens. This is old ground.

The Supreme Court ruled that it was a minority right, and its scope was modified by an amendment.

However, since Prop. 8 only . defines a single word, it will not affect the issue on whether courts can rule on whether or not same-sex couples have constitutional entitlements to tax, inheritance, estate, power-of-attorney, hospital visitation, and other privileges afforded to married couples on the basis of equal protection.

On a side note, the Florida amendment also banned civil unions. A Florida-type amendment, if it were ever adopted in California, may indeed be a revision.

What’s to stop sentiment from turning again in 2016 and then losing this civil right again.

And on, and on and on.

Minority civil rights cannot and should not be decided by a majority vote.

Why call them a “minority” to begin with!?

This is about WAY more than same-sex marriage. This is about whether or not we will, in the future, allow a simple majority of citizens to change the fundamentals of the California state constitution to deny a suspect and vulnerable minority their constitutional right to equal protection. This is about whether or not our courts will be allowed to continue in their traditional and constitutional roles of interpreting the Constitution AND protecting minorities from the tyranny of the majority. This is why the Japanese-American organization, the Jewish organization, the Defamation League and other groups who represent vulnerable and suspect minorities are joining this legal challenge. They fear the precedent that this would set in threatening the civil rights of other minorities who may fall out of favor of the majority (like through war). Don’t forget that we were rounding up Arabic men RANDOMLY from the streets after 9/11. We are not at all beyond bringing back internment camps if all the right circumstances came together in just the right way. The last eight years have made it terribly clear to me that we are still capable of doing things, out of fear, that I thought we would never see again in this country.

Please don’t allow yourself to miss the forest for the trees on this important issue. Yes it’s about same-sex marriage equality today but if we don’t LEGALLY challenge this unconstitutional process of changing the foundational principles of the state constitution with a simple referendum requiring only 50% + 1 rather than following the proper steps for REVISION then we are leaving ALL vulnerable minorities susceptible to future discriminatory whims of the majority.

I too would prefer that we could have and would have won this by a popular vote, if only to silence the cries of “judicial tyranny”. However, there is a major problem with this strategy going forward. Even if we go that route and win by majority vote in 2012 it won’t fix the serious problems created by passing Prop 8. It won’t reestablish the courts as the final arbiters of the constitution and it won’t legally establish the fact that the constitutional rights of minorities to equal protection should not, can not and will not be subject to mob rule.

For these reasons I believe we not only should but we MUST fight this in the courts.

As JasonD points out, the opposition won this battle, but just barely. Now Prop 8 supporters are taking a lot of heat and, in many ways, on the defense. They’re realizing that a lot of folks in California and around the country see them as mean-spirited bigots. The hard-core will only get more hard-core, but the more moderate supporters may actually begin to realize how much marriage means to us and how wrong Prop 8 was.

A court decision in our favor means same-sex marriage will be legal at least until… well basically forever in California because two-thirds of the legislature will never vote to revise the constitution to rescind same-sex marriage. I’d much rather focus on changing hearts and minds with the force of law behind me. I’d rather show the doubtful what legal marriage looks like in practice. Look how quickly opposition to same-sex marriage dropped off in Massachusetts as people just got used to the fact that there were gay folks getting married.

Can you imagine that campaign? Yote yes on Props 11, 17, 18, 24, and 37. What do we do if half of them pass, but the other half don’t? Or if the one regarding overturning prop 8 is the only one not to pass?

I get what you’re saying about the hearts and minds of the people.

But right now is the perfect time for the court to rule in our favor. The opposition is TAPPED. They had mormons giving up their vacation and college money to get this puppy across the table. They do not have the funds for another war.

If the court rules in our favor, we need to press on as if they didn’t. We need a campaign to show the public just how very much gay marriage will not hurt them. We need to let them see that their religious freedom is not in jeopardy. And I think it would be good of us to still push for those not-interfere with education, relgious rights props all on our own. What would that say if gays pushed for an amendment, bill securing religious freedom?
We should NOT wait until another prop rears it’s ugly head, because we all know it will. If the court rules in our favor we need to be proactive and get the message out that our freedom doesn’t endanger their lives, families, or anything else.

I say regardless of the courts decision the gay community has a lot of reassuring of the public to do. We have to work on the winning of hearts and minds regardless of the court decision, and even moreso if it rules in our favor.