Professor Amar Comments on Prop. 8 in Print and Electronic Media

Associate Dean Vik Amar commented on the possibility of the California Supreme Court overturning Proposition 8 in a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle and in extensive radio interviews with KQED (the San Francisco/Sacramento NPR affiliate) and KCBS.  The initiative, passed by voters on November 4, altered the California Constitution to bar same-sex marriage.  The initiative has been challenged on the basis that it amounts to a revision of the Constitution and not merely an amendment.  Associate Dean Amar comments that this argument, while attractive in some ways, may not prevail in the courts because it is hard to reconcile with past cases and initiatives, and could, if taken at face value, "lead us down a slippery slope."

Vikram Amar, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law with the UC Davis School of Law, is a national authority in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and remedies. His biweekly column for FindLaw.com, the leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.