Simple Majorities and CA Prop. 8

This is an email that I just sent to Andrew Sullivan over at The Daily Dish:

Hey, now that CA's Prop. 8 has passed and only by a very slim majority, I really think you should write about the injustice of mob rule- something our founders were very opposed to and a big reason why they established a democratic republic and not just a democracy. I think you should particularly point out the part of mob rule that allows a simple majority to amend a state constitution. If I remember my high school civics correctly, an amendment to the federal constitution requires a 2/3 majority in both the house and the senate and then ratification by the states (I forget how many states have to approve the amendment before it is considered ratified). Now, obviously changing constitutions should not be done willy nilly and that's why the process of amending the the federal constitution is so difficult and requires a super majority of the national legislative bodies in addition to ratification by the electorate. And, it should be harder to amend the federal constitution than state constitutions. However, approval by a simple majority of voters seems far too easy a stamp of approval to amend a state constitution- especially when the mob is amending to deny rights and discriminate against a group of people. It seems to me that state constitutions are serious enough and carry enough weight in the balance between state rights and federal rights that it should require something like a 2/3 majority or a 4/5 majority to amend them. Well, that's my 2 cents anyway. Keep up the good fight.