The will of the people will not be denied

Unless you're in California:

Prepare to be chilled to the core. And be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Democratic legislators are asking the state Supreme Court to void Prop. 8, regardless (or because) of the fact that it won a majority vote among California's citizens.

Forty-three Democratic legislators, including leaders of the California Senate and Assembly, filed a brief Monday urging the California Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and incoming President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg signed the friend of the court brief, filed with the state Supreme Court.

No Republican legislator signed the petition, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, denounced the anti-gay marriage measure over the weekend.

With almost 11 million ballots tallied, Proposition 8 had 52.3% of the vote to 47.7%. Although many ballots remain to be counted, the 500,000-vote spread is viewed as insurmountable.

"The citizens of California rely on the Legislature and the courts to safeguard against unlawful discrimination by temporary, and often short-lived, majorities," the legislators said in the document, written by attorneys at the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

The measure won with 52.3% of the popular vote, nearly the same percentage of votes won by Barack Obama in the presidential election.

Two questions:

1. Should Congressional Republicans hire Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to write a petition to the Supreme Court to "safeguard" against "temporary, and often short-lived, majorities" and usurp the presidential election?




2. Are legislators - who write California's laws - incapable of writing their own petition?

This is patently absurd and should amount to a Constitutional crisis in California if successful.

Check that. It would be absurd if usurping the vote through the courts was patently implausible. Instead, it is nothing short of alarming.

Alarming indeed... and an omen of things to come.

Count on it.

Comments

[renee]

It won't go undefended and no one is better able to do it then these folks...

A Nationwide Issue Advocacy Organization

NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Public Relations Department - 888-761-2574

DATE: November 10, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Liberty Counsel Files Motion to Intervene to Defend California’s Marriage Amendment

San Francisco, CA – Today Liberty Counsel is filing a motion to intervene to defend against three lawsuits filed at the California Supreme Court by same-sex marriage advocates. The lawsuits, which were filed last week, are asking the Court to overturn the California Marriage Protection Act (Proposition 8) recently passed by California voters. Liberty Counsel represents the Campaign for California Families.

Same-sex marriage advocates erroneously argue that Proposition 8 was an illegal constitutional revision. But a revision covers multiple subjects, whereas an amendment is a single subject, as in this case. Moreover, the amendment was in the process long before the California Supreme Court’s decision in May 2008. The same-sex marriage advocates argue it violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution, which they say protects minorities’ rights against the majority vote. Proposition 8 opponents are requesting California to withhold issuing all marriage licenses, including licenses for heterosexual couples. The lawsuits were filed by the ACLU, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, Santa Clara County, the city of San Francisco, the city of Los Angeles, and Los Angeles lawyer, Gloria Allred, on behalf of a lesbian couple.

Liberty Counsel’s motion to intervene asks the Court for permission to join as a party in all three cases on behalf of Campaign for California Families. The Amendment passed with 52% of the votes and states: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Now that it has been passed, the Amendment will nullify the 4-3 ruling of the California Supreme Court issued on May 15.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “The proponents of same-sex marriage have thrown a ‘Hail Mary’ pass with no receivers downfield. The lawsuit seeking to block Proposition 8 is patently frivolous. The people have a right to amend their constitution. It is amazing how much effort has been put in this battle to keep the people from deciding the future of marriage. It makes no sense that four judges can rewrite the historic definition of marriage and more than five million people cannot restore it to its common understanding as the union of one man and one woman.”

[Roger Stigliano]

If Staver is correct that the lawsuit to invalidate Prop 8 is "patently frivolous", it will be tossed out by the Court, probably with an admonition not to waste judicial resources in the future. And what make him think that the Liberty Counsel has standing to intervene in this case??