Proposition 8 overturned

[topaz]

Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement; prohibiting the official defendants from applying or enforcing Proposition 8 and directing the official defendants that all persons under their control or supervision shall not apply or enforce Proposition 8. The clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment without bond in favor of plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors and against defendants and defendant-intervenors pursuant to FRCP 58.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35374462/FF-amp-CL-FINAL

Comments

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Heh! You beat me to it!

Next up: the Mormons appeal to the 9th Circuit, and ask for a stay of judgment until the appeal is heard. I am hoping, of course, that the stay is thrown out, and given the unequivocal language he used in the judgment, that sounds likely.

Assuming Kagan becomes the next Junior Justice to the Supreme Court, the SCotUS count is current 5-4 in favor of this judgment (Justices Kennedy, Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan vs. Chief Justice Roberts, Sr. Justice Scalia, and Justices Thomas and Alito).

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

This brave new world is fascinating. I first heard about it by searching Twitter for #prop8, where I found a link to http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/08/judge_vaughn_walker_hands_vict.html, which at the time said only that "according to a source who has seen the decision..." Meanwhile Twitter was exploding with people repeating the rumor, while I watched a live ABC feed of people standing outside the courthouse awaiting the announcement. Apparently none of them were checking Twitter.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm holding my breath (not literally, that would kill me) on Kennedy.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

While past performance does not guarantee future results, Justice Kennedy wrote the Lawrence v. Texas decision. And Romer v. Evans before that. I believe that's reason to hope.

[wotw]

I do hope we've just ushered in an era of courts taking the 14th amendment seriously.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

That may well be why the right-wing nut-balls are talking about repealing it.

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

Not likely, since McDonald.

We may have entered an era where the "right" and the "left" are less significant distinctions than "authoritarians" and [whatever the non-politicized opposite would be] are.

[dot_fennel]

I've seen a few writers point out that the decision puts a lot of emphasis on the findings of fact, most of which are pretty specific to the topic at hand.

[dot_fennel]

Wow!

Reading the decision in as much detail as possible (my eyes did glaze over a little), it sounds as though the pro-8 side could barely find anyone to support them, and so didn't present much of a case. The formal defendants in the government all bowed out; the intervening defendants dropped most of their witnesses, two of whom had their depositions entered by THE OTHER SIDE because they had in fact said only things that supported same-sex marriage...

And it's nice to see the arguments about gay marriage affecting straight marriage dismissed so coldly. It won't let me load the text anymore, but there was something to the effect of "Proposition 8 concerns only the right of certain couples to marry; because it does not provide for any other rights for any other people, striking it down cannot deprive those other people of any rights."

[fraterrisus]

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss