One for the Courts

According to the New York Times, California has approved same sex marriage. This was done not under court order, but through the normal legislative process. This puts Schwarzenegger in an awkward position; if he wants, he can kill it with a veto.

Note that Republican typically portray the gay rights movement as one driven by elites in the media and on the bench. Confronted with normal legislative action, though, they are on the defensive. Let's see how Schwarzenegger responds:

"A spokeswoman for Mr. Schwarzenegger, Margita Thompson, said after the vote that the governor believed that the issue of same-sex marriage should be settled by the courts, not legislators..."

Normally Republicans claim to be for legislative sovereignty and against gay marriage. Schwarzenneger was thus in an untenable position, and he chose to attack perhaps the less crucial Republican orthodoxy. Still, it's a quotation that will probably come back to haunt him, which I imagine is the point of the legislation in the first place.

UPDATE: fixed awkward phrasing

UPDATE 2: fixed spelling error