Elaboration on good news from last week, via William C. Duncan on NRO's The Corner blog:

...the state supreme court decided that the Proposition 8 campaign has standing to defend the law, noting that California courts have consistently allowed “official proponents” of an initiative to “to defend a challenged voter-approved initiative measure in order ‘to guard the people’s right to exercise initiative power.’”

The court [said]:

Neither the Governor, the Attorney General, nor any other executive or legislative official has the authority to veto or invalidate an initiative measure that has been approved by the voters. It would exalt form over substance to interpret California law in a manner that would permit these public officials to indirectly achieve such a result by denying the official initiative proponents the authority to step in to assert the state‘s interest in the validity of the measure or to appeal a lower court judgment invalidating the measure when those public officials decline to assert that interest or to appeal an adverse judgment.

...Basically, the court has turned back the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ attempt to throw the case, in collusion with recalcitrant government officials, and vindicated the principle that the people of California deserve to have their laws respected and defended in court.

The next step will be for the Ninth Circuit panel to rule on the substantive claim of Proposition 8’s constitutionality.