This afternoon, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker found that Proposition 8, the voter ballot initiative which outlawed equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians in California was unconstitutional and overturned it. You’ve got questions?
Walker, in his decision wrote:
“Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples.”
For the last two years, gays and lesbians in California have been living in a legal limbo, especially if they were one of the 18,000 couple who married between the May 2008 California Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage and the passing of Prop. 8 later that November. Sure, it’s a moment of vindication for anyone who supports civil rights and equality, but it’s just the latest step in the United States’ on-again/ off-again relationship with marriage equality.
Here’s some of the big questions:
1: Does the decision mean marriage in CA will happen immediately?
Probably. The decision is going to be appealed by the supporters of Prop. 8 and they will most likely file a request to delay reinstating equal marriage until the appeal is sorted out. They’ll make an argument that it will only put more gays and lesbians into legal limbo regarding their marriage status. The problem? It’s local cities and towns that do the actual licensing of marriage. You can expect places like West Hollywood and San Francisco to begin issuing marriage licenses immediately.
The thing to remember is that for many gay and lesbian couples, they’ve been married and unmarried multiple times in recent years as the legal status of their marriages kept on changing. Today’s ruling is an unqualified victory, but it’s still a long way from the finish line.
UPDATE: Judge Walker has put a stay on his decision for two days (meaning it won’t go into effect until Saturday) so that opposition has a chance to file a request to stay the issuing of new marriage licenses and then a decision will follow. Equal rights supporters are obviously arguing that the decision makes it pretty clear there’s no rational reason to withhold issuing licenses.
2: If appealed, Does it go to Supreme Court?
Well, first off, the decision will definitely be appealed and it will most likely wind up before the Supreme Court. But first, it has to go to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Based out of San Francisco, it should come as no surprise that the 9th Circuit has a reputation of leaning towards liberalism.
3: Does the Supreme Court have to hear it?
No matter what happens in the 9th Circuit there will be an appeal to the Supreme Court. The court is free to choose whatever case it wants and if it declines to hear the case, whatever ruling the 9th Circuit comes up with would stand. However, it seems like this is the sort of large constitutional issue that Supreme Court justices get to take a stab at once in a generation, so I’d be surprised if they decided not to take it up.
4: If it goes to Supreme Court, what is likihood of them legalizing gay marriage nationally vs. banning it nationally?
That’s the big question. There are really two issues at work here. The first would be the constitutionality of the ballot initiative, which for the Court, would be their sole interest. The Roberts Court is conservative, but also slightly libertarian, but if there’s one overarching theme to its current composition, it’s that the court is very interested in process issues.
My guess is that it would all come down to the question, “Do the courts have the right to overturn a voter initiative which elects to limit the rights of a minority?” While the court has no problem striking down unjust laws created by the legislature, the fact that the voters of California directly enacted Prop. 8 makes it unique.
I think, despite the conservative makeup of the court, they will likely keep Prop. 8 overturned. The bill is so obviously designed to limits the rights of minorities and has no demonstrable reason for doing so other than bias, that it would be hard for the court to find a way to make it work. As seen in the current case, even those who came testifying for Prop. 8 wound up saying under oath that they thought it was unconstitutional.
However, I would be surprised if the Supreme Court just uniformly allowed gay marriage across the nation. While it might make logical sense, they will probably allow each state to tackle the issue individually.
What do you think of the decision? And now that you just won the right to marry, what are you going to do next? If you have any other questions, post them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them.
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It helped that the judge was homo
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