Yesterday Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state after its Supreme Court had made it legal, violates both the due process and equal protection guarantees of the US Constitution and is therefore struck down!!
In his ruling, US District Judge Vaughn Walker said, "The evidence shows that Prop. 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 Prop. 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes the Prop. 8 is unconstitutional.”
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Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California declared Wednesday that the amendment to the California Constitution barring same-sex marriage, adopted in November 2008 as Proposition 8, violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.
Freedom to Marry, the national nonprofit fighting for same-sex marriage equality, issued a statement praising the decision.
"Today's federal ruling strikes down a cruel and unfair constitutional amendment that should never have become law and affirms that the freedom to marry belongs to every American," the group said in a statement. "As the first court to strike down race restrictions on marriage said in 1948, 'the essence of the right to marry is freedom to join in marriage with the person of one's choice.'"
"There is no gay exception in the Constitution to personal choice and the right to marry, and there is no good reason to continue excluding same-sex couples from marriage," the group added. "Judge Walker's decision will be appealed and litigation will continue, but what we witnessed in the clear light of his courtroom cannot be erased. The witnesses, evidence, and arguments all demonstrated what we've long known: exclusion from marriage harms committed same-sex couples and their families, while helping no one, and the unjustified and unfair denial of marriage to same-sex couples violates the United States Constitution. The judge's ruling reflects the growing consensus in courtrooms and legislatures across the country, and around the world, that there is simply no good reason to exclude same-sex couples from marriage."
A judge struck down California's same-sex marriage ban as an unconstitutional violation of gay couples' civil rights, but a pending appeal of the landmark ruling could prevent gay weddings from resuming in the state any time soon.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8 Wednesday, declaring that limiting marriage to a man and a woman serves no legitimate purpose and is an "artifact" rooted in "unfounded stereotypes and prejudices."
"Rather than being different, same-sex and opposite-sex unions are, for all purposes relevant to California law, exactly the same," Walker wrote in an unequivocal and strongly worded 136-page ruling. "The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples."
While the ruling affects only California, the appeal will go to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over nine Western states. The outcome there eventually could force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether gays have a constitutional right to wed.
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But in declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional, Walker accepted every argument advanced by the plaintiffs and methodically rejected every claim made by the defense. Preventing gays from marrying does nothing to strengthen heterosexual unions or serve any purpose that justifies its discriminatory effect, but harms children with same-sex parents and "the state's interest in equality," he wrote.
"To characterize plaintiffs objective as 'the right to same-sex marriage' would suggest that plaintiffs seek something different from what opposite-sex couples across the state enjoy — namely, marriage," Walker said. "Rather, plaintiffs ask California to recognize their relationships for what they are: marriages."
Describing the defense case as "a rather limited factual presentation," he also said its proponents offered little evidence that they were motivated by anything other than animus toward gays — beginning with their campaign to pass the ban, which included claims of wanting to protect children from learning about same-sex marriage in school.
"Proposition 8 played on the fear that exposure to homosexuality would turn children into homosexuals and that parents should dread having children who are not heterosexual," Walker wrote.
Naturally, the ruling has already been appealed by the anti-equality bigots that looked like clowns during the trial, because they had no legal basis to stand on, and Judge Walker will soon decide whether to stay his ruling until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals takes it on or make it take effect right away.
My hope is that he decides against waiting, but this is such a hot button issue that he’ll likely be forced to stay his own ruling. It’s also possible that a judge on the 9th Circuit Court might be asked to intervene and stay the ruling if Walker doesn’t do so himself.
Either way, this is a historic ruling and the first of 3 steps until gays and lesbians will finally be treated like all other citizens in this country.
Cause for celebration indeed.
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