Constitutional Law

Religious Groups Make Big Push To Topple Gay Marriage Equality In Calif.

Socially conservative political groups, such as James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, are working feverishly to defeat gay marriage equality in California. Last week, the ACSBlog noted the Mormon Church’s involvement in pushing a California ballot initiative, dubbed Proposition 8, which would reverse a state Supreme Court decision granting marriage rights to gays. The New York Times reported this morning that “conservative religious leaders” are especially exercised over the California measure, though there are similar ballot initiatives in Arizona and Florida. “But religious conservatives have cast the campaign in California as the decisive last stand, warning in stunningly apocalyptic terms of the dire consequences to the entire nation if Proposition 8 does not pass,” the newspaper reported.

Tony Perkins, head the Washington, D.C., religious right lobbying group, the Family Research Council, told the newspaper that “We’ve picked bad presidents before, and we’ve survived as a nation. But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage.” Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that recent polling suggests growing support of Proposition 8, which states that, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California.” The Times article noted a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll showing that 52 percent oppose Proposition 8 and 44 percent approve it.

In May, the California Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to deny marriage rights to gay couples. That ruling spurred the launch of Proposition 8. In a recent guest blog post for ACS, Shannon Price Minter, the lead attorney who represented plaintiffs in the case before the California Supreme Court arguing for full marriage rights for gays, wrote that if the ballot measure succeeds, it would mark the first time voters in any state had yanked established equality rights from gays.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).