Proposition 8

Today is a ground-breaking day in the legal world. A federal appeals court panel ruled today that a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California violated the Constitution, all but ensuring that the case will proceed to the United States Supreme Court. The center of the controversy is the famed “Proposition 8,” which was a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage passed by a margin of 52% to 48% in November 2008 in California. The decision upheld a prior ruling by a Federal District Court judge in the Northern District of California who has since retired. The federal appeals court that gave the opinion declared that the ban violated the equal-protection rights of the two same-sex couples that brought the suit. The proposition placed a specific prohibition in the State Constitution against marriage between two people of the same sex. Unlike the ruling from the Northern District though, this opinion interpreted the ban in a more narrow light. The two majority judges in the 2 to 1 decision made it clear that their opinion was not deciding whether there was a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, instead ruling that the disparate treatment of couples under California law since the passage of Proposition 8 violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. “Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different people differently,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the decision. “There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted.” The decision to strike down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional is a major development in the fight for same-sex marriage rights. As law students we should all be aware of the changing legal landscape that we live in. Today is a historical day, not just concerning a certain group of people, but the legal community as a whole. I urge all law students both here at UM and elsewhere to discuss the legal issues presented in this most recent change in California law and to talk about how it might affect our nation’s view of marriage. We have already seen several states legalize same-sex marriage and we also continue to see states adhere to laws like DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act,) which prevent same-sex marriage. The debate most certainly will be a spirited one, but I challenge my legal peers to take up the discussion concerning the legality of same-sex marriage. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and as law students one of our most effective tools for gaining knowledge is to be informed of current events like this ruling.

-Senator Hampton Johnson