The Prop 8 controversy continues…After California’s state constitutional ban on gay marriage shockingly passed on November 4 by a 52.3% to 47.7% vote, many groups of people are in an uproar. Protesters are flocking the streets and lawyers are getting involved. Filing court briefs on Monday in support of a petition seeking to overturn Proposition 8, the petition was filed on behalf of six same-sex couples by Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, and Gregory D. Phillips, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson.
On behalf of 44 state legislators, one brief filed by a team of LA-based lawyers, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, argued that Prop 8 “constitutes a change in the constitution that discriminates against a minority group–something that requires a two-thirds vote of the legislators, not a simple majority vote.
According to a brief written by Ethan Dettmer, a partner in the San Francisco office of Gibson Dunn, Proposition 8, which defines marriage between a man and a woman, “purports to strike at the heart of” the equal protection guarantee and should be invalidated because it was enacted as an amendment, not a revision.
Popularity: 3% [?]
November 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
State courts have had a long history of narrowly interpreting the revision clause.
In People v. Frierson , the Court refused to overturn an initiative amendment reinstating the death penalty after a prior Court ruling declared the death penalty to be cruel and unusual punishment. The initiative in question certainly struck at the heart of the guarantee of freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thanks Michael.
This Prop 8 issue is far from over and it will be interesting to see if the court overturns its decision eventually, even though it looks bleak. I definitely do see it as something that needs to go to legislators and not just a majority vote though. 40 years ago anti-miscegenation would have been banned as well, and I dont think it is in our best interest to leave touchy subjects about alternative lifestyles to the majority.