Prop.8 Overturned

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFJfz0cTQS8&feature=player_embedded#![/YOUTUBE]

Don't think I need to say anything else...

 

This brought tears to my eyes! HORRRAY!!!

 

I just read the decision. 138 pages. Rather than reading other ppl's opinions and characterizations, I recommend that you read the decision yourself. Caution: It is a legal decision by a federal judge (appointed by HW Bush, not Reagan as ref'd somewhere above). Warning: Bias and emotion cancel out intelligence. Be honest with yourself as you read it. Check your bias and your emotions as you read it. When you "digest" reports by others about what the decision sez and what it means, ask yourself if the speaker or writer's bias and/or emotion have been held in check. All that said, I found the decision to be fairly well grounded. Judge Vaugh considered the factual evidence presented and applied the rules of Due Process (14th Amendment) and Equal Protection to the facts introduced at the hearing. Bottom line, the proponents of Prop 8 did not produce evidence to show that the restriction of marriage to persons of opposite sex served, supported, or promoted a government interest. Judge Vaugh noted that the Prop 8 proponents were largely sponsored by the Mormon Church, Catholic Church (that one is mine!), and unnamed labor unions. Bottom line, the court ruled that the Cal state constitution must comply with the dictates of the fed constitution. That principle is well founded. Its called federal supremacy. The supreme law of the land. The fact that 7 million Cal voters wanted prop 8 is not really relevant in matters involving the question whether a law (statute, regulation, or constitution) complies with the requirements of Due Process or Equal Protection. Proponents did not show any basis for denying homosexual men and lesbians the right to choose whom they would marry. Since that was the effect of Prop 8, i.e. denying homosexual men and lesbians the right to marry the person of their choosing, the provision failed constitutional scrutiny.

On the whole, as a piece of legal scholarship and intellectual rigor, Judge Vaugh's decision is heads and shoulders above that of the Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade case.