SACRAMENTO, March 3 (UPI) -- The California state Senate Monday voted in favor of a resolution calling Proposition 8 an improper revision of the state Constitution.
Prop 8 -- approved by voters in November -- was intended to amend the state Constitution to undo a California Supreme Court ruling that state laws banning same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. The court is to hear arguments this week in a challenge to the proposition's constitutionality.
The Senate vote 18-14 to approve the resolution, which says Proposition 8 does not properly amend the constitution because the Legislature did not approve it, the Los Angeles Times reported.
State Sen. Mark Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, arguing in favor of the resolution, said Proposition 8 required a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature to get on the ballot because it would fundamentally revise the Constitution.
"Do we have a constitutional democracy in California, or do we have mob rule?" Leno said.
Republican state Sen. George Runner rejected the suggestion that voter approval of Proposition 8 constituted mob rule.
"Californians have spoken," he said. "I guess I don't see the California citizens, who I believe thoughtfully went to their voting places, as participating in mob rule."
