When the ruling came down today declaring California's Proposition 8 -- the ban on same-sex marriages in the state -- unconstitutional, there was, as you might expect, great joy on my Twitter timeline. Some flat-out declared Prop 8 to be dead. Well, it's not. It's not dead until the U.S. Supreme Court kills it, and there's no real guarantee of that. The court's ideologically split. People can guess all they want and read the tea leaves and so on, but until the court rules there's no real way to know how it will go. It'll be a 5-4 vote either way.
Or will it? Check out this bit from the linked article:
But the appeals court did not address whether marriage was a fundamental right available to same-sex couples as well as heterosexuals, focusing instead specifically on Prop 8.So, in theory, the court could get rid of California's law but other states would still be free to enact or enforce similar laws, at least for a while? Hmmph.
Some lawyers predicted that the narrow ruling would lead the Supreme Court to limit itself to deciding on the California measure or to refusing the case altogether.
Thus, I found some of the reaction today to be just a little over the top. Sure, it's good news, but let's not get carried away. After all, there are still lots of people eager to vote for Despicable Dick Santorum. (Speaking of whom, here are more links, just because we shouldn't forget this...)
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