The 9th circuit did not know whether they should grant standing. They remanded it to the California Supreme Court to decide that.
That's neither procedurally nor factually correct; they certified a question to the California Supreme Court about the authority of petitioners under State law to defend the proposition in court; this was not a remand, and although the Ninth Circuit based its finding of standing on the result, the question to the California Supreme Court was not directly on standing (which is a federal question, not a state law question, and thus wouldn't have been an appropriate question for certification to the state court.)
The Supreme Court has now disagreed.
The Supreme Court, to be clear, disagreed with the Ninth Circuit's conclusion on standing, not the California Supreme Court's answer on the question of state law authority. In fact, they based their disagreement in part on the California Supreme Court answer, and on how that answer clearly indicated that the state law authority did not have the requisite elements of an agency relationship, which would be necessary for the petitioners to have the standing on the basis that they were representatives of the State interest rather than on the basis of particularized harms they themselves faced as the result of an adverse decision.
California gives voters the power to pass proposition that the state does not like.
It gives the voters -- through the reserved legislative powers state held by the electorate -- the power to pass laws (including Constitutional amendments) that the elected representatives of the state don't like.
It also gives the voters the power to voters to elect representatives -- and to remove them if they don't like their actions.
I do not understand precedent well enough to know whether state courts will look to the Supreme Court or the California Supreme Court on this.)
State courts -- and federal courts -- will look to the state Supreme Court on the state law question, and would look to the US Supreme Court on the federal law question (except that the question of Article III standing is, unlike many other federal law questions, almost never relevant to a state court except perhaps as persuasive authority on the application of similar state standing rules when there is no controlling state precedent available.)
Comments
That's neither procedurally nor factually correct; they certified a question to the California Supreme Court about the authority of petitioners under State law to defend the proposition in court; this was not a remand, and although the Ninth Circuit based its finding of standing on the result, the question to the California Supreme Court was not directly on standing (which is a federal question, not a state law question, and thus wouldn't have been an appropriate question for certification to the state court.)
The Supreme Court, to be clear, disagreed with the Ninth Circuit's conclusion on standing, not the California Supreme Court's answer on the question of state law authority. In fact, they based their disagreement in part on the California Supreme Court answer, and on how that answer clearly indicated that the state law authority did not have the requisite elements of an agency relationship, which would be necessary for the petitioners to have the standing on the basis that they were representatives of the State interest rather than on the basis of particularized harms they themselves faced as the result of an adverse decision.
It gives the voters -- through the reserved legislative powers state held by the electorate -- the power to pass laws (including Constitutional amendments) that the elected representatives of the state don't like.
It also gives the voters the power to voters to elect representatives -- and to remove them if they don't like their actions.
State courts -- and federal courts -- will look to the state Supreme Court on the state law question, and would look to the US Supreme Court on the federal law question (except that the question of Article III standing is, unlike many other federal law questions, almost never relevant to a state court except perhaps as persuasive authority on the application of similar state standing rules when there is no controlling state precedent available.)
Thank you for the corrections and clarifications.
I'm a non-lawyer going off of my memory of what was said in the media, and clearly got some important details wrong.