DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[shoju]

Ignoring the content of Prop 8, and looking at only the procedures or events, we have, if I understand it correctly, a situation where the people in a state voted for and passed an amendment to their state constitution. The executive branch declined to enforce it or defend it in court. Those who were instrumental in getting the state amendment passed were found to have no legal standing.
This would appear to set a precedent that the will of the people can be overturned by an indifferent executive branch or by non elected judges. Has this happened before? Is this a legal precedent that makes anyone else uncomfortable?

The problem is, they failed to show proof that they would be harmed by Prop 8 being canned. Nothing they did demonstrated that they had the legal standing to intervene.

It's a weird position. It doesn't matter if they were the people who got the law passed, they aren't the government. And if you are going to defend a law, you have to be the government, or show that you have a legitimate stake in the law.