This case has more implications in the precedent it sets than might be apparent to the average person…
If you are reading me then you probably realize that Prop. 8 is the ballot initiative (which is the way California makes most of its major decisions… hence a lot of their problems) in California that passed during the November 2008 election cycle making it illegal for same sex couples to marry.
The decision has been appealed and is currently in court (or will be soon) experts believe this will end up going to the United States Supreme court before it is finally resolved. I am confident that at that time we will FINALLY get the right result on this issue. This by itself would be historic for correct (or incorrect if it goes poorly) thinking, but the real landmark in my eyes would be the circumvent of the democratic process in the name of the correct ends.
This is the most glaring case, and issue, in modern history where “we the people” keep making the wrong choice over and over again. Yes, the people can make the wrong choice, and no just because a majority wants it doesn’t make it right. In this case a (relatively) small group of people on the right side of the issue will have put a stop to the majority for the sake of doing the right thing, and they will have won. If that happens it could be a big standard setter for overriding the democratic process when necessary and would restore some of my confidence in the American governmental process (although not entirely, if this is to happen we are still years away from it).
There is hope for the world, there are people that are wise enough to see the right way of doing things and fortunately there are ways, however heavy handed they are, for them not to be handcuffed by the ignorance of the “democratic majority”.
parallax1978
mikethedealer
ladyatsc
As I see it this kind of thing should never be in the court system. The government has no right to tell any individual(s) whom they can and can’t marry. This kind of thing costs the tax payers millions of dollars a year. And to what end? Perhaps the money would be better spent on such things as health care, unemployment and education issues.
I agree, it shouldn’t have to go to the court system. The first step should be people using their common sense of decency and respect (and at the very least their “not give a fuck” ability). If that is insufficient it should then go to the Constitution and the whole “All men are created equal” thing and have it stop there. The problem, as it often is, is the religious people who somewhere along the way have decided this is really important and a political issue and have interfered making it difficult for these people to have the same rights as everyone else and make a big deal out of something that doesn’t affect them at all. This makes it to such that we have to have courts and government step in and force the correct result onto people since they are incapable of doing the right thing on their own. It is going to take years but eventually that is what will happen, every time their has been a minority that wanted civil rights they have always gotten them eventually and this will be no exception.
Now if only we could only gt the non-religious minority to unite maybe we could start dealing with that problem…