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Loading ...Prop 8 ruling moves to federal court
05.27.2009 9:41am EDT
(San Francisco, California) Hours after California’s top court upheld Proposition 8, the voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, a federal lawsuit was filed arguing that Prop 8 violates the U.S. constitutional guarantee of equal protection and due process.
The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction against California’s Proposition 8 until the case is resolved.The suit was filed by Theodore B. Olson and David Boies on behalf of two gay men and two gay women.
Olson and Boies are two of the top litigators in the country, but in 2000 they were on opposite sites in the Bush v. Gore election challenge.
Olson told the Associated Press late Tuesday that he hopes the case will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gay anger over the ruling led to marches from San Francisco to San Diego to New York and to Chicago Tuesday evening.
More than 150 protesters who blocked a street across from the California Supreme Court in San Francisco were arrested, with citations for failure to obey a police officer and jaywalking.
In the heavily gay Castro district, the large rainbow gay pride flag that flies in Harvey Milk Plaza was lowered to half-staff and a black stripe put on the top.
In Los Angeles, protesters rallied outside the Los Angeles County clerk’s office, where marriage licenses are issued. They waved rainbow flags and carried signs that read “Repeal Prop 8 in 2010.”
About 100 people sat down in an intersection near the University of California, Los Angeles, during rush hour and several hundred protesters gathered at a rally in West Hollywood where actress Drew Barrymore addressed the crowd.
“Children need families, people need to love and we need to move forward, not backward,” Barrymore said. “What defines a family? We do!”
President Barack Obama was scheduled to be in Los Angeles for a fundraiser later today. Gay rights activists planned to use the visit to press the president to fulfill his campaign promise to work for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, said Lorri Jean, director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
At rallies throughout the state, speakers told protesters that the fight is not over. A consortium of LGBT groups has formed Yes on Equality to press for a Prop 8 repeal effort to be placed on the 2010 ballot.
The California Secretary of State has given the group Yes on Equality until Aug. 17 to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to qualify. Another proposed voter effort, by two college students, would strike the word “marriage” from all state laws.
In New York Tuesday, night protesters marched from Sheridan Square to Union Square for a rally in support of same-sex marriage rights in both California and the Empire State.
The New York State Assembly has passed marriage equality legislation supported by the governor. The bill has stalled in the Senate.
In St. Louis, activists gathered in front of City Hall, its rotunda pillars draped in an expansive rainbow flag.
While California gay rights advocates accused the court of failing to protect a minority group from the will of the majority, the justices said that the state’s governing framework gives voters almost unfettered ability to change the California Constitution.
Justice Carlos Moreno, who had been under consideration as President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, was the lone dissenter.
He said denying same-sex couples the right to wed “strikes at the core of the promise of equality that underlies our California Constitution.” He said it represents a “drastic and far-reaching change.”
“Promising equal treatment to some is fundamentally different from promising equal treatment for all,” Moreno said. “Promising treatment that is almost equal is fundamentally different from ensuring truly equal treatment.”
All of the justices agreed, though, that the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed before Prop 8 was passed should be allowed to stand.
Gay rights activists called it a “hollow victory.”
I say good luck. i see this thing going back on the ballot. My only fear is that, I do not think we have been able to change enough minds. The blocks that voted heavily against us e.g republicans, catholics and other ethnic minorities might still vote the same way because frankly speaking we have just been bashing them since last november. I wish the courts had done the right thing. I feel so ’sick’
beyond words.
I fully expect Obama to be “too busy” to address the issue. The timing of his judicial announcement quite coincidentally fell the same day as the, known in advance” decision on Prop. 8. A proposition that might not have passed is he had enough of a spine to support its defeat in a manner anyone would have known about.
Obama won’t do a damn thing about it. Look at DADT…DOMA…nada…
The man pulled the typical political move and promised us a mile and hasn’t given an 1/8″.
The man will end up going down in history not for change, but for turning a blind eye to it when he had the opportunity to do things greater then any other has since Lincoln.
Too bad, this is only going to lead to more bad, bad things across this Hate-Nation.
America, The Land of 300 years of Discrimination.
Proud to be an American now?
“Olson told the Associated Press late Tuesday that he hopes the case will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Isn’t this suicide? Who can think that this Supreme Court will strike down Prop 8? If SCOTUS rules that limiting marriage to man and woman does not violate the equal protection clause of the US Constitution, my guess is that state Supreme Courts will also be reluctant to rule in favour of marriage equality on the grounds of the equal protection clauses in the state constitutions. Without such a Supreme Court ruling there may be other state supreme courts to follow the Massachussetts and the Iowa SC.
The decision to bring the case of marriage equality to this Supreme Court looks like plain madness to me.
Am I wrong?
Numerous politicians have come out and stated their feelings about the decision… but Obama? Not a word.
I spent 22 yrs defending a constitution I ‘thought’ said “EQUAL” for all..
I made a mistake, it said “equal for only those we choose”.
I wasted 22 yrs..
Maybe there’s another country somewhere that actually has those values.
After a day of thinking I have come up with three things we can do.
1) Boycot all things Mormon. This will show the Mormon Church our buying power. We must get a list of all things that the Mormons own.
2) Tell the Democrates that they will not get another cent from us till they take a stronger stand on all things Gay/Lesbian.
3) We must convince at least two people who voted in favor of Prop 8 to change their mind. This is grassroots democracy. This proposition was come up again next year for a vote. We must all work together.
Now we must concentrate on the Mormon Church for obvious reasons. They are view by many Christians as false prophets anyways and they took great pleasure in using the Church in Salt Lake City to overturn the California Courts. We must send a message to all other churches that if you want to mess with us we will fight back. We as a community must work together on this. Let us not become the Republican party and fight with each other. Let support each other and fight against those who would do us harm. Are you listening Obama?
“Gay anger”? (paragraph 6) How is that different from, like, anger? Is that anger over “gay marriage” rather than “marriage equality”?
Obama sucks. The fact that he has completely sidestepped this civil rights struggle shows his complete lack of mettle as a leader and the overwhelming absence of empathy. He doesn’t care and will not lift a finger to help us. We have to help ourselves. He’s in LA right now. Any gay or lesbian who gives him money on his fund-raising tour is a fuck-tard (we’re losing civil rights and he’s fundraising?! That’s a new low even in obama-style self-absorption! And over the last few months he’s set the bar pretty damned low!)
POLL of the WEEK
Will the Prop 8 decision in California
encourage more gays and lesbians to do more travelling there?
LOL
Obama — is he the Great Imposter?
or have we left our responsibilities in the hands of people whos only concern is their personal/profesional goals.
The gay community must take it’s own destiny into it’s own hands and move forward and not depend on the Judges and Politicians!
The gay community must grow up!
I’m perplexed as to how this might wind up in SCOTUS since we don’t yet fall under the scrutiny requirements of the equal protection clause.
Does anyone have a link to the actual case?
We have a 25% victory in retaining the existing 18,000 marriages, NOM and our enemies have a 75% victory in that they still have Prop H8 in place.
We will not rest until our victory is 100% and our enemmies’ victory is 0%.
OK, so Obama sucks… we have to rely on ourselves to get what is ours. Let’s leave him to deal with the economy. We have our own work to do and he has his to do. OK? We cannot and will not wait for him, because he doesn’t “get it” about our lives but we do.
We have lives to live, the older one gets, the faster time goes it seems and human beings live only about 75, 80 or 90 years at the most usually with the last few years in a state of decline and deterioration. We don’t have the luxury of time to waste to claim what is rightfully ours. We have don’t have time to sit on hands and hope for the best from Obama. Obama, either get on our side now or get out of our way! You have had almost half a year to decide if you are going to be helpful or not to our needs, our lives and our cause.
I agree with Chris Sullivan on this, Obama had the chance to lend the prestige of his office to fiercely and total condemn Proposition in no uncertain terms, but he was silent on that and conveniently preoccupied with his US Supreme Court nominee (whom the conservatives seem to loathe, who apparently has had a long experience as a judge etc, and who is acquiring due to her new media exposure a reputation for being both experienced and liberal, something her conservative critics who want someone on the bench to bend and bow to them can’t stand)
You quote Drew Barrymore, who I love, but fail to mention Mayor Villagrossa’s excellent speech? He said that our state is broken because it takes a two thirds majority to pass a budget, but the rights of a minority group can be taken away by a simple majority.
Dawson Said:
LA Mayor Villagrossa: “Our state is broken because it takes a two thirds majority to pass a budget, but the rights of a minority group can be taken away by a simple majority.”
Sad but true. The CASC got it completely wrong. Unfortunately, they took the easy way out.
Mike Said:
“1) Boycot all things Mormon. This will show the Mormon Church our buying power. We must get a list of all things that the Mormons own.”
Here’s a start:
1) Marriott is owned by a Mormon. The Marriott family is Mormon and I’m sure they tithe some of their profits from the hotel to their church. Avoid them and support Hilton. We all know Paris is supportive
Whoa, we should attack the Mormon church because “They are view by many Christians as false prophets anyways”? No. It’s wrong to exploit others’ bigotry to further our own interests.
We need to specifically attack the unconstitutional intrusion of religion into law, and the illegal political activities of tax-exempt organizations. And these policies are driven by the religious leaders, not always the rank and file. Before you boycott some business, at least check to see how they contributed to the campaign.
A better idea is to change minds all over the state and country. And also to show Democrats that we can energetically and generously support their campaigns, or we can stay home. Their choice.
I have always been a yellow-dog democrat but I realize we need to develop the gonads to challenge them. As long as we can live with the opponent winning sometimes as a result of our tough love, we need to use our power to create true allies, and then make sure they win.