August 4th, 2010
Proposition 8 found Unconstitutional
Proposition 8 (for the few of you in the room who heard nothing about this) was a proposition brought to the ballot of the November (Presidential!) election of 2008. The ballot was to add a new section, 7.5, to the declaration of rights of California constitution. The full text of the proposition:
This initiative measure expressly amends the California Constitution by adding a section thereto; therefore, new provisions proposed to be added are printed in italic type to indicate that they are new.
SECTION 1. Title
This measure shall be known and may be cited as the “California Marriage Protection Act.”
SECTION 2. Section 7.5 is added to Article I of the California Constitution, to read:
SEC. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
As one could imagine, the GLBT community took a great deal of offense to this unreasonable, irrational and unconstitutional bigotry. Many of the more conservative, crooked churches started funding the campaign heavily.
When it came time to vote, the proposition passed in part because many thought “Yes” on Prop 8 was “Yes” to gay marriage, in part because the Yes campaign said a lot of lies, such as “They’ll force your churches to perform gay wedding ceremonies” and “They’ll teach gay marriage in schools” and the like. Not to mention the “Man and a Woman are best for families” and a whole line of other BS. But when it came to trial in January of this year, the Defense (Yes on Prop 8) couldn’t come up with a single bit of credible evidence to support their claims. Their efforts were rooted entirely in bigotry, and while they successfully petitioned to ban videotaping and televising the event to hide it from the eyes of the public, they could come up with nothing to hide that fact from the eyes of the Judge.
The Honorable Judge Walker of the California Supreme Court released his ruling today on the trial that ended with closing statements in June of this year. Here is the conclusion from the ruling:
Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis,the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
Today is a good day for human rights.
Next up: The US Supreme court, as the defense is sure to appeal.
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This is definitely awesome and all, but why the crap did it take nearly two farking years to fix that pile of BS? 1 day to destroy everything, and two years to fix it...
It took 2 years because no one challenged it until May of 2009, and the court case took until just now to come to a close.
It's not over yet though; the defense will be taking this to the Federal Supreme Court (and let them! A ruling there could render DOMA unconstitutional as well).