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California Supreme Court Upholds Prop. 8 by Gizem Unsalan May 28, 2009 |
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After hearing the briefs both for and against Prop. 8 and deliberating for nearly three months, California’s Supreme Court justices issued a ruling on Tuesday upholding the ban on same-sex marriage in the state.
Six of the seven justices ruled that overturning the ballot measure that went into effect after November’s elections would go against the will of the people. Only Justice Carlos Moreno, who was rumored to have been under consideration as President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, was against upholding Prop. 8. Moreno said that denying same-sex couples the right to wed “strikes at the core of the promise of equality that underlies our California Constitution.”
The 18,000 same-sex couples who wed after the California Supreme Court originally approved of gay marriage a year ago, in May 2008, will be allowed to stay married.
That same night, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to talk about Prop. 8. The California Governor said the state will support the court’s decision and uphold Prop. 8, but that it was only a matter of time before the ban on gay marriage would be overturned.
While protests and marches followed the court’s decision from San Diego to New York, two of the top litigators in the country, Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, were busy filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of two gay men and two gay women challenging Prop. 8. Olson and Boies argue that Prop. 8 violates the U.S. Constitution in terms of guarantee of equal protection and due process.
The lawsuit also seeks a preliminary injunction against Prop. 8 until the case is fully resolved in the federal Supreme Court.
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