(This was originally posted on the Bilerico Project, America’s best LGBT blog, by Nancy Polikoff, a gay and lesbian family legal advocate for 30 years.)

The astonishing lawyers at NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights) are at it again.  Not only did they get us marriage in California, but they’ve come up with some very good arguments for sending the “Protect Marriage” folks back to the drawing boards…or at least the street corners.

Seems the initiative states that it “would have no fiscal effect on state or local governments.”  But the Williams Institute crunched the numbers and found that same-sex marriage will bring almost $700 million to California in the next three years… and $63 million in taxes.  So the lawyers are arguing that the signatures were gathered under a false assertion.

They have another argument too.  An initiative to amend the California constitution can’t change it too much.  That’s the law.  A revision of the constitution must go through a different process…not subject to an initiative.  So the gay groups are arguing that the rights granted by the California Supreme Court decision are so sweeping — and touch so many provisions in the constitution — that they can’t be voted on in an initiative.

Is this just one of those we-have-to-try-it-but-it-won’t-work lawsuits? No way!  These are solid legal arguments.  But meanwhile, the massive political efforts rightly continue to defeat the initiative at the polls.

Visit The Bilerico Project for daily queer commentary.