On Nov 5, 2008, at 4:24 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
> At 01:05 PM 11/5/2008, Chuck Grimes wrote:
>> And then there is a good chance that a lawsuit can be put together to
>> over turn the initative. I know several women lawyers who are lesbian
>> with partners and kids and I am pretty sure they are working on how
>> to
>> do that, this very morning.
> Done and done:
> http://thecalifornian.com/article/20081105/NEWS03/81105019/1002/NEWS01
> Three civil liberties groups announced this morning that they have
> filed a lawsuit asking the California Supreme Court to strike down
> state Proposition 8 if it passes
> The proposition on Tuesday's ballot would eliminate a right to same-
> sex marriage in California...The American Civil Liberties Union, the
> National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal filed the
> lawsuit at the court's headquarters in San Francisco.
> They said the petition contends that the proposition is invalid
> because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to
> undo the state constitution's core commitment to equality.
Proposition 8 is clearly unconstitutional, but these legal groups are making a big mistake by basing their suit on the nebulous notion of a "core commitment to equality" that would trump the voters' decision as to the meaning of their state constitution. Proposition 8 is clearly unconstitutional because by specifying that only man/woman marriages will be "valid" in California it would make invalid in California "gay" marriages performed in Massachusetts or Connecticut. This blatantly violates Article IV Section 1 of the US Constitution, which states: "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each state to the public Acts, Records, and Judicial Proceedings of every other State." Instead of resorting to a more-than- dubious constitutional theory, they have to bring the first case on behalf of a California couple married outside California, even if they have to wait a day or two for the chosen couple to fly to Massachusetts and back. The California Supreme Court would have no choice, even if it wanted not to (it obviously doesn't), but to find Proposition 8 unconstitutional.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos