Margaret A. Bengs, a state employee, writes in the Sacrament Bee:

Whatever one's view of same-sex marriage, we all must be disturbed when the constitutional process whereby we exercise the right to govern ourselves is undermined.

... In our country, a president or a governor cannot decide what is constitutional and what is not. Their authority cannot override a law passed by Congress and signed by a president, or in California an amendment to the Constitution enacted by the people.

What's more, whenever there is a question of authority among the three branches of government, "the legislative authority necessarily predominates," James Madison wrote in Federalist 51, as it most closely represents the people.

The refusal to defend laws supporting traditional marriage is not "progressive," as politicians pandering to the same-sex marriage lobby would have us believe. It is a regression to political systems based on brute power, not on individual liberty and self-government.

... Our representatives have become our rulers. If they don't like what we decide through the legitimate voting process, they just refuse to implement the law or defend it in court.

... The true victims of discrimination are the voters whose rights are being trampled by rulers who do not represent them