Great Day!
As anyone with an Internet connection probably knows by now, Proposition 8 was overturned today. Best comprehensive coverage is probably from the Los Angeles Times; best analysis is on Prop 8 Trial Tracker. The decision is long, so more analysis is likely to come, but the quick reaction seems to be that this was about the best outcome supporters of marriage equality could hope for: the proposition was found to be unconstitutional on multiple grounds, and there is some wonderfully strong language in the decision about legal marriage, for example:
Tradition alone, however, cannot form a rational basis for a law.... Instead, the evidence shows that the tradition of gender restrictions arose when spouses were legally required to adhere to specific gender roles. California has eliminated all legally mandated gender roles except the requirement that a marriage consist of one man and one woman. Proposition 8 thus enshrines in the California Constitution a gender restriction that the evidence shows to be nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life.
Outstanding.
It will be appealed, of course; the chances that this does not run all the way to the Supreme Court are pretty much nil. And I'll be shocked if there isn't some sort of stay on the ruling that will keep same-sex marriages from being performed until that happens. But it's one step closer. One giant, important, awesome step.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/487277.html. There are currently
comments on DW.
Tradition alone, however, cannot form a rational basis for a law.... Instead, the evidence shows that the tradition of gender restrictions arose when spouses were legally required to adhere to specific gender roles. California has eliminated all legally mandated gender roles except the requirement that a marriage consist of one man and one woman. Proposition 8 thus enshrines in the California Constitution a gender restriction that the evidence shows to be nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life.
Outstanding.
It will be appealed, of course; the chances that this does not run all the way to the Supreme Court are pretty much nil. And I'll be shocked if there isn't some sort of stay on the ruling that will keep same-sex marriages from being performed until that happens. But it's one step closer. One giant, important, awesome step.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/487277.html. There are currently
comments on DW.