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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.”
Obama is a liar and a politician in every sense of the word.. he doesn’t care because he already got his……Congress doesn’t care, because they never have…..The Supreme Court doesn’t care, because they are there for life…just pay your taxes and quietly take your seat at the back of the bus…..I see a long hot summer with lots of “bad hair” days, bad interior design work, rotten fashions, terrible acting and “withheld” support of our detractors and “surgically directed” support of our friends. MONEY talks, just ask San Diego developer Doug Manchester, owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. Pulling GAY MONEY out of Manchester’s hotels has hurt him. We need to start dealing EXCLUSIVELY with companies and in States that support our rights. MONEY TALKS, BULLSHIT WALKS….Let’s start talking the language they understand….. $$$$…BOYCOTT the NAZI States of repression and the companies that don’t support us. Do business with companies and in States that are supportive of our rights. In a weak economy…..our money will be like a sledge hammer to the groin…
If it stays on the ballot long enough, and we keep fighting for our rights its bound to happen.
Churches are allowed to voice their opinions on Proposition but not for candidates. We will not be able to change this in a short time. Boycotts are effective and rather then looking at the false prophet statement you are missing the point. The Mormon Church was fundamentally behind this Proposition and it is time to strike back.
If someone hits you do you just sit back or do you hit them back harder? This is not the time for ‘kum-bi-ya’. We attack those who attack us plan and simple. Let’s stop being victims. Many churches are to blame but making a statement at the chief church behind Prop 8 is something we should all be supporting.
I said before we should be working together rather then finding faults like the Republican Party. We should all refuse to be victims. The Mormon Church, Obama and the Democratic Party need to understand this today and not in 2010.
I suggest reading the court’s press release; the cases in in re: Marriage stand-equal protection.We still have a constitutional right to “choose one’s life partner and enter with that person into a committed, oficially recognized, and protected family relationship that enjoys all of the constitutionally based incidents of marriage.”
What is Ted Olson’s motivation in this? He is certainly not a gay friendly lawyer. I suspect his desire to get this before the Supreme Court is to get an anti gay marriage or anti gay precedent. Then we are really stuck. I’m all for pressing our case in state courts but we should avoid the Federal courts for now until we have a more favorable balance on the Supreme court.
I don’t think the President has turned his back on LGBT issues. Remember he’s only been in office for about five months and still has 3 1/2 years in his term. Give him time. He’s faced with a lot of problems left over from the previous administration. I know he will act on LGBT issues when he can.
Who has brought this case to federal court? Is this a Trojan Horse that has been deposited within our civil rights movement? Is this an effort by enemies of gay marriage to get the current Supreme Court to set a federal precedent against gay marriage?
Why would anyone advocating for gay rights bring a controversial case before a court controlled by a conservative block – Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Kennedy? There can be no doubt about the votes of the first four – we might as well hand our fate over to the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The best we could hope for is that the moderate block of Stevens, Souter, Breyer, Ginsberg would be able to get the court to refuse to hear the case.
There have been earlier suits filed in federal court by individuals not part of the coordinated effort on behalf of gay rights. But they were dropped, at the urging of gay organizations, because of the near-certainty of a loss, which would then become precedent for all lower courts.
We need to find out more about these two lawyers, Olsen and Boies. If indeed they are in favor of gay rights, they should be convinced to drop the case. If they are moles, they need to be exposed as such, to bring public opinion to bear against such a despicable strategy.
I just watched the press conference on the federal court case. The briefing left a wierd feeling. It was just too perfect, orchestrated to minute details.
This organization, American Foundation for Equal Rights, has come completely from out of the blue, has found two model same sex couples, recruited a former solicitor general and a high profile lawyer, put up a website, and refuses to disclose who is paying the bill.
I think that there is a need for some serious investigative journalism here. I think it is good that Proposition 8 is challenged in a federal court, but obviously it would be good to know who exactly is behind all of this.
We need to introduce ourselves to people who do not know gays, or claim they don’t. Shopping, on walks, in churches. Couples should show up and introduce themselves, and their children. Just say Hi! Everyone you meet will remember you the next time they vote.
These may be Right Wingers trying to stir up anti-Gay sentiment….not supporters at all.
This from another blog on this case:
“I smell something very very fishy. Why is Theodore Olson representing gay and lesbian couples in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case? According to Wikipedia, Olson belongs to the Federalist Society. Wikipedia also says “The (Federalist) society was begun by a group including Edwin Meese, Robert Bork, Ted Olson and Steven Calabresi, and its members have included Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Jr. and Samuel Alito. All of these individuals are conservatives, and nearly all have served in Republican administrations.”
Is this a “forcing of the issue” to the SCOTUS by the hard right while they have a stronger chance of winning marriage inequality and before Obama has a chance to alter the court’s balance while at the same time having an insider on the plaintiffs’ team? It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but that’s exactly how Karl Rove and gang play ball. They could have a two-fold agenda with this; one is as already stated to force the issue while things are in their favor, and two is to raise the culture war to the federal level and out of the states rights arena where they are losing ground. States like Texas for instance are fine with Vermont (and the like) granting marriage equality as long they don’t have to recognize it in their state. But put to a federal court and the possibility of it being “shoved down their throats” could very possibly stir up the anti-LGBTQ hysterics to previous levels.”
A ballot repeal measure WILL NOT DO A BIT OF GOOD!!! I’m also very VERY leery of this new civil rights “group” that just magically seems to have appeared on the scene. So what happens when the USSC denies us our Marriage Rights hmmmm….?? We wait another 25-30 years for a (hopeful) shift of judges?!? How would a negative decision effect our Marriage Rights in those states that already grant us full rights??? Fe fi fo fum, I smell the blood of a right wing SCAM!!!
As I said, I watched the press conference on the federal court case. Based on that I have no doubt whatsoever that Ted Olson is in fact a strong and honest supporter of marriage equality. If this is a conspiracy he is not involved.
I am more concerned about the background organization which in the press release gives only a ’strategic communications & issue campaign management’ company as its point of contact.
Still don’t like it! Maybe I’m being super paranoid here, but I feel it’s WAAAAY to soon to bring this issue to the US Supremes. Let’s get a few more states under our marriage belts first. This whole thing STINKS to high heaven!!
This lawsuit is probably MORE dangerous than Prop 8.
The controlling 5 conservative block judges are all catholics. They will vote according to church teachings instead of the US Constitution.
With the exception of Kennedy (age 73) and Scalia (73), the other 3 conservatives are young (55, 59, and 60). Liberal Justice John Paul Stevens is 89. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 76 and has recently been treated for pancreatic cancer–the most deadly kind of cancer. We cannot count on these 2 solid liberals being on the court if this horrendous case should reach the court. Sotomayer is Obama’s nominee to replace Souter. Could we count on her vote?
If the Democrats are able to control the White House for the next 16 years, we might have a GLBT friendly majority which takes the words in the US Constitution seriously. Until there is a liberal majority on the US Supreme Court, we will never have equal marriage rights in all 50 states.
Is there a way we can block this or prevent it from being heard? Persuade the court to drop the case?