The Protect Marriage coalition is gratified by yesterday's California Supreme Court ruling on the legal challenges to Prop 8, where their three major requests were granted.
First, the California Supreme Court agreed to review legal challenges to Prop 8. Ron Prentice, leader of Protect Marriage, said, We have asked the California Supreme Court to set a hearing to decide on the challenges that have been filed against Prop 8 because we are confident that the Court will do the right thing and uphold our right to enact the measure by initiative. By encouraging the Court to hear and decide these cases now, we are hoping to avoid years of costly litigation over Prop 8 as the cases would normally wind through the court system."
Second, the Supreme Court refused to stay Prop 8, meaning that same-sex marriages will be halted in California pending a ruling from the Court. This was seen as an important victory.
Third, the Court has granted the request of the proponents of the initiative and their campaign committee to intervene in the litigation as Real Parties in Interests. This ruling grants the backers of Prop. 8 full legal standing to submit written arguments and appear in oral argument before the Court.
"Granting the backers of Prop. 8 intervention in these cases means that voters can be certain that there will be a thorough and vigorous defense of Prop. 8, " said Andy Pugno, Protect Marriage General Counse. "Voters will not have to solely depend on Attorney General Jerry Brown to defend the measure. Since the attorney general was an active opponent of Proposition 8, we did not want the fate of the measure to rest in his defense of it."A verdict in this case will probably be given some time in March.
Recall—No Need for Discussion Now
The major efforts of the Protect Marriage Coalition now will be legal. However, Prentice said, b "Because we fully expect to prevail in court, we expect that, at some point, we will need to defeat a ballot proposal by advocates of same-sex marriage. Our opponents have threatened such a proposal as early as 2010. We are already beginning the planning process to lay the groundwork to defeat a future proposed initiative that would legalize gay marriage. What we are not doing is discussing the possibility of recalling justices who oppose us. We are fully confident that the California Supreme Court will uphold Proposition 8, even if some members of the Court disagree with the issue. We encourage all supporters of Proposition 8 to set aside any discussions about the possibility of recalling any justice of the Court. We see no need for such discussion.
Regarding counter protests, Prentice also has advised, "Many of our supporters have asked about holding events to offset the numerous protests that have been held by our opponents...We do not encourage supporters to organize local demonstrations or counter-protests. Doing so will only spawn further protests from our opponents and potentially spark street corner confrontations. Criticism of our opponents' tactics is mounting daily and they would dearly love to provoke our supporters into a confrontation that makes us look like aggressors. Every protest our opponents launch features angry gays screaming at California voters. They call voters bigots and homophobes, and many of them have used racially derogatory terms in referring to African Americans and their strong support for Proposition 8. Their protests are doing great harm to their public position."
Obama Signals Things to Come President-elect Obama has made his frightening intentions for family values crystal clear with his appointment of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D) as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human services. As Majority Leader, Daschle was an avid opponent of every pro-life measure-voting for tax-payer-funded military abortions, supporting a measure that would have forced Americans to pay for the distribution of the morning-after pill to young school girls and blocking the partial-birth abortion ban.
Look out, we are sailing into rough weather.
This is a direct contrast to the work that has been accomplished by Michael Leavitt, current Secretary at HHS. The department is just finishing up a rule that would protect health care providers who object to providing abortions or other procedures on moral grounds. The new regulations would bar anyone who receives federal funds from discriminating against pro-life doctors or other medical personnel because of their beliefs. Pharmacists, who make that decision, would also be exempt from dispensing drugs that could end a life. These important conscience provisions have taken months of work, and we hope will be a lasting legacy for Secretary Leavitt and President Bush.
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