Prop8 Unpropped

A three judge panel for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has declared California's Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional.

This is the first time a federal appeals court has made such a ruling.  Prior court rulings have been in state courts.   The defenders of Prop8 can now appeal the ruling to a hearing by the full 9th Circuit Court or they can appeal directly to the U. S. Supreme Court.

Either way, it will likely wind up before SCOTUS within another year.

I am increasingly hopeful that this SCOTUS might actually agree with this decision.   Why, given their rightward tilt of late?

1.  Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for two important decisions on homosexuality (Romer, which overturned a draconian Colorado anti-gay rights law, and Lawrence, which overturned sodomy laws).   He wrote eloquently about equal rights and about the obvious animus of those who wrote the sodomy laws.
    
     Whether he would balk at expanding marriage to same-sex couples remains to be seen.  Some people champion all gay rights except the actual marriage.  But the case against Prop8 is so strong, it will be hard to deny.

2.  Antonio Scalia predicted, when Lawrence was decided, that this would lead eventually to same-sex marriage.   But he seemed to imply that, if the court could make the decision it did about that, there would be no way to decided against marriage too.


In the meantime, gay marriage in California has to wait until this case goes all the way and is decided by SCOTUS -- probably another couple of years.

But . . . very good news today, that's for sure.

Ralph

PS:   I hope our side doesn't push too hard for Obama to declare himself on this.   He's been saying for 3 years that his view on gay marriage is evolving.   But everything he has said up to that point suggests that he will give his support -- as soon as the November election is over.   Don't push him to make it a campaign issue.  Just let him wait and accept the political reality of how Repubs would use it as a weapon.

Besides, his support isn't going to influence the SCOTUS decision.