32 Proposition 8 Overturned! 36 Maryland Vote Pushed to 2012 37 An Unlikely Advocate: Ezra Nawi 38 Michael Lucas on Bad Journalism 41 Awaiting Our Fierce Advocate
PROPOSI T ION 8 O V E R T URNE D
POLI The fe d eral ju dge Va ugh n Wal ker r ule s California’s gay marriage ban as simply unconstitutional, stating that “California just has no interest in differentiating between same-sex and opposite-sex couples.”
SPRING 2011
BY ANDREW HARMON AND KERRY ELEVELD
32
In a highly anticipated decision with potentially farreaching implications in the national battle over marriage equality, a federal judge has struck down California’s Proposition 8. U.S. district judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the ballot measure violated both equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution in a 136-page opinion released Wednesday, nearly seven months after an unprecedented trial over marriage rights began in his San Francisco courtroom. “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license,” Walker wrote in a decision deemed by many legal observers to be both straightforward and breathtaking in its scope. “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. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional,” Walker wrote.
Walker issued a temporary stay of the judgment, however, pending a motion by Prop. 8 proponents, who appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday. In a letter to Walker prior to the decision, attorney Charles J. Cooper wrote that another “window of same-sex marriage in California would cause irreparable harm.” Walker has asked for arguments from both sides regarding a stay of the decision to be submitted to the court by Friday but has not indicated whether there will be a hearing on the matter. Should the district judge deny a stay, it’s likely that Prop. 8 proponents will seek one from the Ninth Circuit. Lead attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who brought the case last year on behalf of a gay male couple in Burbank and a lesbian couple in Berkeley who were denied marriage licenses, spoke shortly afterward outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco with Chad Griffin, founder and copresident of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which organized and helped finance of the suit. Walker’s decision “increases the stability and value of marriage to our society,” Olson said outside the courthouse after the ruling was released. The state has