When To Use Civil Disobedience (and When Not To)

When the whole gay marriage thing broke in San Francisco, I criticized the mayor for not taking the obvious conflict between California statutory and constitutional law to the courts. He should have resolved that conflict before handing out marriage licenses. Turns out I was more right than I knew. Findlaw today has a column about a California constitutional provision that required the mayor to do just that. Article III, section 3.5 of the California Constitution requires an "administrative agency" to enforce a statute until a court says otherwise. That requires any conflicts, like the one being exploited in San Francisco, to be resolved methodically via the legal system. Which is a good thing.