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Did Prop 8 Decision Impact Maryland’s Marriage Equality Vote?

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

The debate in Maryland, where the House of Delegates approved a gay-marriage bill on Friday, made clear that the decision finding unconstitutional California’s ballot initiative banning gay marriage will have consequences nationwide–at least until the Supreme Court visits the issues.

The decision in Perry v. Brown last week by a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Proposition 8 was not considered legally consequential when it was issued. The ruling was tightly worded so that it only applied to those states where gay marriages were performed prior to being invalidated, a condition that applied only to California.

But the debate in Maryland, where Gov. Martin O’Malley has pushed the bill, which is expected to be approved by the State Senate next week, shows how Perry will shape future state legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. It means that allowing gay marriage has become the equivalent of opening Pandora’s box. Once a state has allowed just one gay or lesbian couple to marry, legally there is no going back.

Full Story from the Daily Beast

Click here for gay wedding resources in Maryland.

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Tags: decision, marriage equality, maryland, prop 8

CA: Prop 8 Decision’s Dissenting Opinion

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

The prescient dissent has a storied place in American constitutional history thanks to the preeminence of once-dissenting Supreme Court justices like Holmes, Harlan, and Brandeis. Their progressive dissents foresaw a future where the poor were treated with dignity; where equal protection included all races and religions regardless of status, wealth, or national origin; and where liberty meant more than a corporation’s freedom to run a sweat shop. Their views became majority opinions not only because social forces finally caught up with their genius, but also because they were right on the law from the start.

Neither can be said for Judge Smith’s dissent in the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Perry v. Brown. By tilting away from the arc of social progress and doing so on shaky legal ground, Judge Smith has earned his place in the dustbin of forgotten history.

But before we relegate Judge Smith to a tiny footnote, today I will argue that Judge Smith relied on outdated law and made a logical and legal error when he converted an already broadly permissive rational basis test, in which state action that discriminates has to be rationally related to some legitimate government interest, into a standard of good faith, where “rational” can mean honest reliance on anything.

Full Story from Towleroad.com

Click here for gay wedding resources in California.

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Tags: decision, dissent, ninth circuit, prop 8

Read the Ninth Circuit’s Full Ruling on Prop 8

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

From the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just released the complete opinion on affirming District Judge Vaughn Walker’s historical decision to overturn Proposition 8, the California law that overturned marriage equality.

Full Story from SDGLN

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Tags: decision, full text, marriage equality, ninth circuit, prop 8, ruling

CA: Big San Francisco Rally Planned for Day of Ninth Circuit Prop 8 Decision

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

The Ninth Circuit has completed all hearings and briefing in the Prop 8 case and could rule at any time. San Francisco is prepared -see Plan below.

Since proposition 8 was passed and then challenged in the California and Ninth Circuit Courts, the San Francisco LGBT community has rallied and protested outside each and every hearing, with activists and politicians standing on court steps calling for equality, and vowing to continue the fight until the last drop of legal discrimination in California. This time the LGBT community and allies will come out in great numbers either protest or celebrate the ruling.

If a ruling favors same-sex marriage, marriages are not likely to start immediately, as it is highly likely a stay will be ruled. That will not stop couples showing up with offciants, families and friends to conduct ceremonies on City Hall steps. It promises to be a noisy day, either way. Below in red, is a plan for the day as provided by Marriage Equality USA in tandem with other organizations.

Full Story from Gay USA

Click here for gay wedding resources in California.

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Tags: decision, ninth circuit, prop 8, rally, san francisco

Has the GOP Even Read the Iowa Marriage Equality Decision?

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Now that the campaign is ending in Iowa, here’s a question: Why have the candidates gone around the state bashing the Iowa Supreme Court decision that said persons of the same sex have the right to marry one another? For that matter, why have their fundamentalist and evangelical supporters been bashing it?

Perhaps it’s time — after 2 years — for those folks to read the 69-page decision. All of it. If they do, they’ll hold it to their breasts. For Varnum v. Brien is a ringing endorsement of the freedom all of us — right and left and center and believer and non-believer and candidate and non-candidate — hold dear, the freedom of religion.

“I actually campaigned in Iowa against those justices” who were ousted after the decision, the devoutly evangelical Rick Santorum proudly said during a debate. Newt Gingrich, who lately has said that as president he would ignore court decisions he doesn’t like, helped finance Bob Vander Plaats’s campaign against the three justices who were on the ballot for an up-or-down vote in 2010.

Full Story from Neiman Watchdog

Click here for gay wedding resources in Iowa.

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Tags: decision, gop, iowa, marriage equality

CA: Should International Law Influence the Ninth Circuit’s Prop 8 Decision?

Friday, December 30th, 2011

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is currently considering the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that amended the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized by the state. In determining the initiative’s constitutionality, the court will follow the approach of Judge Vaughn Walker of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, subjecting Proposition 8 to analysis under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. These clauses will invite scrutiny of the validity of asserted governmental interests in confining marriage to opposite-sex couples. However, traditional constitutional analysis does not involve examination of US obligations under international human rights law. Neglecting to analyze these obligations removes a valuable reference favoring same-sex marriage recognition, bucking an increasing trend among foreign courts.

The principal obligations relevant to the issue of same-sex marriage are contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The US signed the ICCPR in 1977 and ratified it in 1992, subject to a number of reservations, understandings and declarations. Article 26 of the ICCPR provides that all persons are equal before the law and entitled to equal protection under it. In this respect, state parties must guarantee equal and effective protection against discrimination on a number of grounds, including sex, race and “other status.”

The Human Rights Committee is a body of independent experts charged with overseeing the implementation of the ICCPR by state parties, and it carries out this task in two ways. First, it periodically issues “general comments” that interpret the rights set out in the ICCPR. Second, it sits in a quasi-judicial capacity and makes non-binding recommendations in response to communications by nationals against those state parties that have acceded to the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.

Full Story from Jurist.org

Click here for gay wedding resources in California.

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Tags: decision, international law, marriage equality, ninth circuit, prop 8

Analysis of the Prop 8 “Standing” Decision

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

The California Supreme Court issued the latest entry in the legal paper trail of the saga of Proposition 8 today. Prop 8, recall, is California’s initiative constitutional amendment that stripped same-sex couples of their previously fundamental right to marry under the California Constitution.

Answering a question that had been certified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the court ruled “that when the public officials who ordinarily defend a challenged state law or appeal a judgment invalidating the law decline to do so, under … the California Constitution and the relevant provisions of the Elections Code, the official proponents of a voter-approved initiative measure are authorized to assert the state’s interest in the initiative’s validity, enabling the proponents to defend the constitutionality of the initiative and to appeal a judgment invalidating the initiative.”

With this ruling, the dispute over Prop 8′s constitutionality returns to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where that federal court now seems more likely to rule that Prop 8′s official sponsors (“the Proponents”) have the legal authority or standing to appeal Judge Walker’s August 2010 decision holding Prop 8 unconstitutional.

Full Story from Cruz Lines

Click here for gay wedding resources in California.

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Tags: analysis, california supreme court, decision, prop 8, standing

CA: Ruling Puts Prop 8 Case on the Fast Track

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

We are on the cusp of achieving what we have been fighting for. For countless couples like plaintiffs, Kris Perry & Sandy Steir and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo, marriage equality cannot come quickly enough. Marriage Equality is on its way to victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to the American foundation for Equality (AFER) the impending ruling is important for a host of reasons:

In a letter to supporters , which includes an appeal for donations, Chad Griffin of the American Foundation for Equality asserts “we are confident that the Court will affirm our historic District Court victory. The anti-marriage Proponents of Prop. 8 failed to present a shred of credible evidence to justify discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans. Marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, plain and simple.”

Full Story from Gay USA

Click here for gay wedding resources in California.

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Tags: california, decision, prop 8, supreme court

Chile Constitutional Tribune to Vote 9-1 Against Marriage Equality

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Chile’s Constitutional Tribunal will make an official verdict next week in which they will reject as “inapplicable” arguements made in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. The case has been going on for a year now, and sought to challenge the decision of a Civil Registry official who refused to grant a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

The vote came down 9 to 1. There were four different opinions from the judges, apparently, and some may mean that there can be future litigation.

The case involves three same-sex couples and Chile’s Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, and is part of a push to challenge the constitutionality of Article 102 of the Civil Code. That article defines marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Full Story from Lez Get Real

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Tags: chile, constitutional tribune, decision, Gay Marriage, marriage equality

Prop 8 Forces Ask Court to Vacate Decision Because Judge is Gay

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Retired U.S. district judge Vaughn R. Walker’s recent acknowledgments that he is gay and in a long-term relationship are grounds for overturning his landmark decision in the federal Proposition 8 case. Or at least that’s what the ballot measure’s backers argued in a Monday court filing, described by one opponent as “desperate and absurd.”

In the 26-page brief, filed in U.S. district court in San Francisco, Prop. 8 supporters argued that Walker should have been disqualified from deciding the case and that his opinion should be tossed, in part because of his “long-term committed relationship [and] his failure to disclose that relationship at the outset of the case.” Those alleged omissions “give rise to a genuine question concerning [his] impartiality,” attorney Charles J. Cooper wrote.

Cooper argued that Judge Walker’s handling of the case was “marked by a number of irregular and unprecedented rulings” indicating bias. He claimed that Walker ignored previous state and federal court rulings on marriage rights for same-sex couples in his decision striking down Prop. 8 as unconstitutional.

Full Story from The Advocate

Click here for gay marriage resources in California.

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Tags: decision, Judge Vaughn Walker, prop 8, vacate

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