California Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Prop 8 Challenges

[jeffg]

Today our Supreme Court agreed to hear the legal challenges to Prop 8. They won't issue any decisions until March, and in the meantime, only one of the seven justices was in favor of staying the amendment.

I think, and in a way I hope it comes down to passing another ballot initiative in California, in 2010 or 2012: to repeal Prop 8, restore the right to marriage for gay couples and, like Massachusetts, add an explicit prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation to our state constitution. It will slam the door permanently on this "defense of marriage" nonsense.

Also, within a few years we'll be able to seek justice from our federal Supreme Court. If president Obama can make two, hopefully three appointments to the Court over four or eight years, DOMA laws -- all of them -- will stand a very probable chance of being thrown out on 14th Amendment grounds. The question isn't if this will happen, only when.

The bottom line is, we're dealing with 3000-year old bigotry, ignorance and hatred which is not only politically correct in America and much of the world, it's been institutionalized in our religions and cultures, and now in our constitutions. It will not die easily or quickly.

 

[sudsmaster]

I read the same news today just now.

Oddly, Attorney General Jerry Brown was in favor of the court not issuing a stay on the ban. I'm not quite sure of his reasoning, since he was obviously against the amendment all along. Maybe he felt a stay would result in negative publicity and galvanizing the pro-8 crowd. Don't know.

With regard to the US Supreme Court, unfortunately I think the justices who will be retiring in the next few years are already on the liberal side. Bush appointed fairly young conservatives to the bench: Roberts, Scalia, Alito. One can only hope that Justice Thomas retires sooner than later, though. He's a big zero from what I gather. Adds nothing to the deliberations.

The oldest justices are Stevens (88), moderate/liberal; Ginsburg (75), liberal; Kennedy (72), moderate/swing; Scalia (72), conservative. So the oldest four would have to retire/expire in order for Obama to tip the court's balance to the liberal side by one or two votes (that would mean replacing Scalia and Kennedy). Of course, if Obama gets a full eight years, who knows who else might retire: like Clarence Thomas (60). Maybe he has high blood pressure?

 

[jeffg]

The attorney general is required by CA law to (publicly) defend whatever measures are passed, no matter how much he/she disagrees with them. It's no secret what Brown privately thinks about Prop 8, but if he would have publicly supported a stay, he would have opened himself up for lawsuits.

I think the biggest suprise today was Joyce Kennard. She was the only justice who didn't support review of Prop 8, even though she had been the most vocal critic of Prop 22.

 

[gyrafoam]

And as they

Arnold is going against the establishment for once:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/11/christian_right_takes_on_termi.html