The LA Times reports:
Supporters of Proposition 8, the proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, said they would file suit today to block a change made by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to the language of the measure’s ballot title and summary.
Petitions circulated to qualify the initiative for the ballot said the measure would amend the state Constitution “to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
In a move made public last week and applauded by same-sex marriage proponents, the attorney general’s office changed the language to say that Proposition 8 seeks to “eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.”
Jennifer Kerns, spokeswoman for the Protect Marriage coalition, called the new language “inherently argumentative” and said it could “prejudice voters against the initiative.”
Read the whole thing.
The original wording of Proposition 8 reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California.” Given that Steve Smith, campaign manager for No on Proposition 8, applauded the language change, and the fact that some consider Attorney General Jerry Brown a possible candidate for Governor in 2010, this alteration of language (contrary to the desires of those who circulated petitions to qualify the ballot initiative!), seems highly suspect.