Saturday, October 17, 2009

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Judging Proposition 8

The lawsuit in California that’s challenging the constitutionality of the odious Proposition 8 — the ballot proposition that passed last November, which prevents same-sex couples from legally marrying in the state — has drawn U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker to adjudicate. Initial feedback is good for the good guys: Judge Walker is challenging the Prop 8 supporters to show actual harm that same-sex marriage will cause to heterosexual families.

A federal judge challenged the backers of California’s voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday to explain how allowing gay couples to wed threatens conventional unions, a demand that prompted their lawyer to acknowledge he did not know.

The lawyer for the Prop 8 side tried to turn it around and claim that there might be harm that we can’t yet see, saying that “it is not self-evident that there is no chance of any harm, and the people of California are entitled not to take the risk.”

Judge Walker isn’t having that. He’s refused summary dismissal of the suit, and insists that the Prop 8 side has the burden to show harm, and to show that it doesn’t unconstitutionally violate the rights of same-sex couples. The case is scheduled to be heard in January.

The general counsel for the groups that devised Prop 8 sums it up this way:

What really is happening is the voters who passed Proposition 8 are essentially on trial in this case, and they continue to be accused of being irrational and bigoted for restoring the traditional definition of marriage.

Damn right!

1 comment:

The Ridger, FCD said...

The supporters of Prop 8 - many of them, anyway - don't seem to be willing to stand up for their conviction. They want to force their opponents to agree with them and get mad when they're called what their actions so clearly show them to be. The people who complained when they lost business, for instance... "I can deprive you of rights, but you shouldn't get mad and stop shopping at my store."