California Marriage Amendment at the AG Race

California's current Attorney General, Jerry Brown, is running for Governor (and office he held back in the early 1980s). You may recall that Brown worked against Proposition 8 (which is now the California Marriage Amendment) and wouldn't defend it in court.

Who will be the next Attorney General for California? One candidate is John Eastman, who wrote a defense of the California Marriage Amendment. Over on the Townhall.com blog, Carol Platt Liebau notes that at least one newspaper editor is already freaking out.

Unfortunately, these days, it seems that conservatives are the only ones who believe in abiding by the will of the voters. So -- to Morain's sniffing disapproval -- John Eastman would actually advocate on behalf of California voters when it comes to Prop. 8. (That's in stark contrast with Jerry Brown, who simply refuses to do his job -- defending the laws made by the taxpayers who elected him and pay his salary -- when he personally disagrees with the will of the people.)

In short, the difference between John Eastman and his competition (in both the primary and general elections) is that he's a person who: (1) Is a principled conservative; (2) Is a constitutional expert who understands that the words of the Constitution actually have a fixed meaning, and can't be "reinterpreted" at will to advance the left-wing "cause du jour"; (3) Comes from the private sector -- and understands what it means to earn a living outside of government.

I don't know if it will matter what a state Attorney General thinks about the California Marriage Amendment, given that the matter is now in the federal courts. Perhaps if Eastman is AG, he can argue for the CMA in subsequent trials? But if the Supreme Court of the United States of America takes the matter out of the hands of the states, it won't matter who is AG of any state. If, however, it is left to the states, then an AG's position will be an issue in almost all states.