Golden State Tarnished

In a 6-1 decision, the California Supreme Court upheld Prop 8, the ballot measure that eliminated same-sex couples’ fundamental right to marry there by changing the state’s constitution. Claiming it was “constitutionally bound to uphold” the controversial initiative process that many organizations, including Lambda Legal, claim too easily amends the state’s charter, the Court added that “if there is to be a change to the state constitutional rule embodied in [Prop 8], it must ‘find its expression at the ballot box.’” The Court did, however, uphold the rights of the 18,000 same-sex couples who married between June 16 and November 4, 2008. Associate Justice Carlos Moreno wrote in dissent, “Proposition 8…violates the essence of the equal protection clause in the California Constitution and fundamentally alters its scope and meaning.” As Justice Moreno’s dissenting opinion makes clear, the state constitution’s equality guarantees are greatly and, we believe, improperly diminished if majorities can use their voting power to eliminate minority rights as Prop 8 has done. Site feed @ http://www.oasiscalifornia.org/news/atom.xml