Posted on 12/20/2008 8:42:24 AM PST by IbJensen
SAN FRANCISCO - California's attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now joining forces with homosexual activists to overturn the results of Proposition 8.
In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters.
But Brown said he reached a different conclusion "upon further reflection and a deeper probing into all the aspects of our Constitution.
"It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative," he said in an interview Friday night. "Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote."
Brown, who served as governor from 1975 to 1983, is considering seeking the office again in 2010. After California voters passed Proposition 8 on Nov. 4, Brown said he personally voted against it but would fight to uphold it as the state's top lawyer.
He submitted his brief in one of the three legal challenges to Proposition 8 brought by same-sex marriage supporters. The measure, a constitutional amendment that passed with 52 percent of the vote, overruled the state Supreme Court decision last spring that briefly legalized gay marriage in the nation's most populous state.
Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called the attorney general's change of strategy "a major development."
"The fact that after looking at this he shifted his position and is really bucking convention by not defending Prop. 8 signals very clearly that this proposition can not be defended," Minter said.
The sponsors of Proposition 8 argued for the first time Friday that the court should undo the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters banned gay marriage at the ballot box last month.
The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief telling the court that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions.
"Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions," reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr, dean of Pepperdine University's law school and a former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton.
Both Brown and gay rights groups maintain that the gay marriage ban may not be applied retroactively.
Starr's co-counsel Andrew Pugno said Brown's decision to challenge the voter-approved measure and the argument advanced by the attorney general was "totally unprecedented."
"His legal duty as attorney general of the state is to defend initiatives passed by the voters," he said.
The state Supreme Court could hear arguments in the litigation in March. The measure's backers announced Friday that Starr had signed on as their lead counsel and would argue the cases.
A pig knows more about the application of lipstick than the weird Jerry Brown could ever know about the Constitution.
Jerry Brown to California voters: “Drop dead!”
People’s votes no longer matter?????
Does Jerry Brown have a wide stance now?
Surprise, Surprise!
Gee I wonder why didn’t we believe him a month ago when he said he would vigorously defend the peoples vote.
He has been trying to sabotage prop 8 from the beginning when he changed the wording on the ballot to help it lose.
This is actually quite astonishing, although not at all surprising.
Our masters are displaying themselves for the first time, no longer hiding behind the veil of democracy.
Courts and government officials are openly proclaiming their right and duty to override the vote of the people, even in the form of an amendment to the very constitution from which these officials derive their power.
If this stands, it can presumably be equally applied to the Constitution of the US. That means we lose even the last theoretical potential of being able to rescue ourselves from their tyrannical misinterpretation of the Constitution by changing the document.
Reinvents himself....
AGAIN... and....
AGAIN... and....
AGAIN... and....
AGAIN... and....
How about the rule of [existing] law??
....and....
THE CLEARLY EXPRESSED WILL OF THE PEOPLE!!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“His legal duty as attorney general of the state is to defend initiatives passed by the voters,”
Since when has a State Constitution or the people’s will ever effected a liberal?
When the ballot box no longer works, the time for stronger measures is not far away. Paul Revere would be yelling the Liberals are coming, the Liberals are coming...
The people said NO, these people need to know I will NEVER ACCEPT their concept of family! NO MARRIAGE FOR SAME SEX COUPLES! I am sick and tired of having this issue shoved in my face. Well I shove back - NO!!!!!!!
This “victory” eventually is going to be overturned by the state SC. And, the Prop 8 supporters will go down with but a whimper in the end. The left never gives in to its opposition.
Whoever came up with:
Voting does matter.
Who said, “If voting really mattered it would be illegal”?
Hey, Moonbeam, the people have spoken. I guess California is a dictatorship now?
For thousands of years and in EVERY civilized society, “marriage” has been defined as a union between a MAN and a WOMAN! And Brown calls gay “marriage” “... a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT??” Maybe on HIS planet!
Governor Moonbeam strikes again!
Up next: “The Migratory Mammal Matrimony Act of 2009!”
yeah, whatever happened to majority rules?
Jerry is a complete asshat.
Long past time for a revolution?
The California Constitution is now unconstitutional in California.
The rulers there no longer derive their power from the people.
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