Litigation

Prop 8 Ruling: A Foundation for Appeals

By Peter Hardin

Federal District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, overturning California’s voter-passed ban on same-sex marriages, said the state “has no interest in differentiating between same-sex and opposite-sex unions.”

Excluding gays from marriage “exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed,” Judge Walker wrote in his 136-page ruling, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

Judge Walker sits in San Francisco. He concluded that the ban, approved by voters in 2008 as Proposition 8, violated guarantees of equal protection and due process under the U.S. Constitution:

“Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in  singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. 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.”

It was the first time a court threw out a same-sex marriage ban based on federal constitutional grounds, the LA Times reported. Marking a historic but temporary victory for gay rights advocates, the case is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Because his decision was being appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Walker agreed to consider waiting for a Ninth Circuit decision before finalizing his opinion and putting it into effect in California, a CBS News and Associated Press article stated.

Legal experts were hard pressed to predict an outcome if the Supreme Court were to consider an appeal of Judge Walker’s decision. Yet they found his opinion reflected “careful logic and structure” that could box in the justices, according to a New York Times news analysis.

Andrew Koppelman, a professor at Northwestern Law School, told the Times that ?if the Supreme Court does not want to uphold same-sex marriage, its job has been made harder by this decision.?

But Doug NeJaime, an associate professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, said, ?I don?t see five justices on the Supreme Court taking Judge Walker?s findings of fact to the place that he takes them.?

Douglas Napier, a lawyer who defended Proposition 8, warned that “The whole nation is watching, and the whole nation should be quaking to think that a single judge sitting in California can reverse the will of 7 million voters,” according to a San Francisco Chronicle article.

But a conservative scholar who supported Proposition 8, John Eastman, contended that Judge Walker’s detailed analysis and references to evidence at trial may persuade Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to side in favor of same-sex marriage. Justice Kennedy is a key swing vote on the court.

There also was speculation that Judge Walker’s opinion could transform the debate in the courts. “This is a tour de force ? a grand slam on every count,” said Shannon Price Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “This is without a doubt a game-changing ruling.”

Judge Walker first was nominated to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, and two times later by President George H. W. Bush.

Prominent attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson argued on behalf of the plaintiffs. Olson, a conservative, is a former U.S. solicitor general. He and Boies battled each other  in the historic Florida recount case from the 2000 presidential election.

Olson welcomed Judge Walker’s decision, a New York Times article reported, as a ?victory for the American people,? and for any people who were denied rights ?because they are unpopular, because they are a minority, because they are viewed differently.? You can read earlier Gavel Grab reports about the case by clicking here.

Full post as published by The Gavel on August 05, 2010 (boomark / email).