CA Supreme Court Loses Respect Around World
In a 6-1 decision this morning (10AM Pacific Time), the California State Supreme Court voted both to uphold Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage under their State Constitution, and to continue to recognize the 18,000 marriages that took place before Proposition 8 became law last November.
The Colorado GLBT Center’s response is here. A brief excerpt:
The decision doesn’t directly affect Coloradan GLBT couples, who don’t yet have the legal right to marry here.
“A tremendous number of Colorado couples traveled to California from May to November last year while the state recognized same sex marriage,” said Mindy Barton, legal director of the GLBT Community Center of Colorado. “We continue to encourage those couples here in Colorado to use their marriage as an opportunity to educate others about the importance of having the government, not just friends and family, recognize their relationship.”
I found this part of the Court’s ruling…amusing:
“In a sense, petitioners’ and the attorney general’s complaint is that it is just too easy to
amend the California Constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it,” the ruling said.
What about protecting the Constitution from a mere 51% of the voters that bother to show up for an election? I guess that’s far less important.
To be fair, I should say that we have this process in Colorado as well. The petition process is a bit more strenuous, but it comes down to a simple majority vote of the people who bother to go to the polls on Election Day. I should say we also have Amendment 43 in our own state’s Constitution, which effectively bans same-sex marriage by defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Rumor has it that it could be overturned in 2010 by (surprise, surprise) yet another ballot initiative.
*tightest hugs*
Despite expecting the worst, yesterday waiting for the decision to be released was excrutiating, and when it hit the headlines, a felt like a part of my heart died.
I mean, what’s the point of even having a state constitution when the rights of a minority can be so thoroughally trampled by a bare majority? If that was the case with the US constitution, women still wouldn’t be voting, and minority races would still be subject to forcible servitude.
I know. It’s just horrible – we have that in CO too. From some of the decision, it looks like the Supreme Court was ruling on the whole “amend the Constitution by a simple majority” thing. So I’m not too surprised that they ruled Prop 8 was constitutional. Strictly speaking, it was.
Next I think they need to vote on whether or not the whole amendment process is an antiquated relic that needs to have a massive overhaul. I think you know how I feel about that one.
*tight hugs* Still hoping for a reversal of Amendment 43 next year – we’ll see.
*middle of the night hugs… ’cause i can’t sleep*
From talking to an assortment of Californians at FB and DU, it sounds to me like many of them are getting fed up with the inundation every cycle of all of these ‘propositions’ anyway, and starting to wonder what exactly they’re paying their legislators for in the first place. *cynical laugh*
I think it’s pretty much a given that we will see a lot of these hateful amendments and DOMAs and such off of the books in the relatively-near future. I just wonder how many families will be harmed and have to suffer in the meanwhile, as they (we) wait for the rest of America to do the right thing?!
IIRC, a lot of those ‘propositions’ get voted down just on principle, especially the ones that cost money. I think that’s what was expected to happen w/Prop 8, TBH – but with the influx of money from, um, outside interests, it wound up passing.
On the bright side, thanks mostly to Prop 8, FotF is now bankrupt. Which is all good.
*hugs*
It’s looking like CA might be one of the last states to allow same-sex marriage now. But it will happen. The historical tide’s turning, but it’s very fscking slow.