Prop. 8 litigation: amendment or revision

Findlaw has posted this second commentary by David Vikram Amar and Alan Brownstein that discusses the issues involved in the Prop. 8 litigation at the California Supreme Court. It indicates: 

. . . An amendment can be placed on the state ballot simply by gathering the requisite number of signatures (as was done for Proposition 8). A constitutional revision, under the terms of the California constitution, can be placed on the ballot only at the initiation of the state legislature.

Precisely what things can be accomplished by amendment, and what things constitute revisions, will be the subject of much briefing over the coming weeks. Our current sense is that the challengers to Prop. 8 have an uphill climb if we are to be guided by what the California Justices have said and done in the past concerning the amendment/revision dichotomy . . .