To the surprise of practically nobody.
California voters legally outlawed same-sex marriage when they approved Proposition 8 in November, but the constitutional amendment did not dissolve the unions of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who wed before the measure took effect, the state Supreme Court ruled today. The 6-1 decision was issued by the same court that declared a year ago that a state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated the right to choose one's spouse and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.
Prop. 8 undid that ruling. The author of last year's 4-3 decision, Chief Justice Ronald George, said today that the voters were within their rights to approve a constitutional amendment redefining marriage to include only male-female couples. Justice Carlos Moreno, in a lone dissent, said a majority should not be allowed to deprive a minority of fundamental rights by passing an initiative.
The justices ruled unanimously that Prop. 8 was not retroactive and that gay and lesbian couples who relied on the court's May 2008 ruling to get married before the Nov. 4 election will remain legally wed.
Prop. 8, which declared that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California, passed with a 52 percent majority after an intense and expensive campaign. Sponsors, mainly affiliated with Christian conservative groups, raised nearly $40 million for the measure and opponents more than $45 million - combined, a record for a ballot measure on a social issue anywhere in the nation.
The ruling, the court's third major decision on same-sex marriage in five years, may be the last word from the state's legal system on the issue. But the matter is far from settled in the political arena. Gay-rights advocates, anticipating the decision, have discussed putting another constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2010 or 2012 to try to repeal Prop. 8....
Mind, it was mildly surprising that the court was that strongly against declaring the proposition to be in fact a revision. One would have thought that it would be closer than that, somehow.
And people are planning already to try to take it back to the ballot box in 2010 or 2012. One does wonder what they expect to be different, or what they plan to do to produce a different outcome. And one wonders if the leaders of the various groups have any plans for preventing the spectacularly ugly racial divide that erupted after the proposition revoked the right to marry the first time. What will they do, if and/or when, a majority of the voters of California say, "No, really, we meant it. WE DON'T LIKE YOU. WE DO NOT THINK YOU ARE OUR EQUALS. YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO EQUAL RIGHTS."
What will they do?
And I wonder what will hit the ballot box first: an amendment to repeal Proposition 8, an amendment/proposition to strip recognition from existing gay marriages (and there will be one) ... and wouldn't it be just glorious if those appeared on the same ballot? California would have the chance to be really emphatic about just how much it doesn't like its gay citizens.
Posted by iain at May 26, 2009 01:18 PM
