L8er G8er

Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California overturned California’s Proposition 8 today, a victory for equal rights. Surprisingly, my hetero marriage seems just as stable tonight as it was this morning. Go figure.

In a 136 page ruling, Judge Walker ruled that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.

The Church issued its own response. Essentially:

California voters have twice been given the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage in their state and both times have determined that marriage should be recognized as only between a man and a woman. We agree.

As one Facebook commenter opined:

So here’s the church’s take. No discussion of equal protection or due process rights; instead it’s all about prior votes at the ballot box. Apparently it takes about a century for the trouble with popular majorities to fade from institutional memory.

Indeed.

It boils down to this, from Judge Walker’s ruling:

That the majority of California voters supported Proposition 8 is irrelevant, as “fundamental rights may not be submitted to [a] vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.”¹

Amen, and amen.

I rejoice with my brothers and sisters tonight. Those of all orientations.

1. Walker cites West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette, 1943. The full paragraph is worth inclusion here: “The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.” [↩]

Politics