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Posted: 6/26/13


Prop.8 was dismissed today, 6/26/13, by the U.S. Supreme Court saying the defenders lacked standing to defend the measure pdf.  The implication is that states and the government can overturn any law or amendment by simply refusing to defend it.  This changes the whole perspective on U.S. laws and gives officials far more power its citizens than they were previously thought to have.


Currently, Prop.8 is still the law in California.  To be overturned by the courts it still needs to somehow be overturned by an appellate court like the Ninth Circuit, which would take years ref.  

However prop.8 opponents and legal officials in California seem to believe that the Ninth Circuit court of appeals can overturn this amendment at will and will do so in 25 days after giving the defenders the opportunity to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear the case ref.

Both sides agree that the officials in California may choose to ignore the law and no longer enforce the amendment which the U.S. Supreme Court rules is acceptable mp3 ref.

The Supreme Court ruling leaves the Northern District judge Vaughn Walker's ruling intact.  Judge Walker allowed the Perry couple to marry and invalidated Prop.8.  It is still unclear to me whether Vaughn Walker had jurisdiction to allow them to marry, but he definitely did not have jurisdiction to invalidate prop.8.


This case or another very similar case will most likely be appealed back to the U.S. Supreme Court for a more definitive ruling on whether a marriage amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman can be overturned as a result of violating the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.  The stage has been set by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn current marriage amendments based on this and the DOMA ruling.  I suspect the Ninth Circuit and possibly others will start overturning state marriage amendments in their districts.  

There will likely be more news on this next month.

Another case to watch is the Nevada case (Coalition for the Protection of Marriage v. Sevcik) where the marriage amendment is being challenged and currently being appealed to the Ninth Circuit. ref

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Links:

• pdf: SCOTUS ruling
  
• pdf: Samuel Alito's Dissenting opinion on page 74, footnote 7 of 2013 DOMA ruling. ref
  
• mp3 14:03 mins 08/01/13: Dale Schowengerdt on NC Family Policy Matters
  
• mp3 13:20 mins 07/19/13: Joe Infranco on Janet Medford Show
  
• mp3 11:03 mins 07/02/13: Jordan Lorence on Culture Lifeline
  
• mp3 20:67 mins 07/02/13: Byron Babione on Faith Radio
  
• mp3 17:06 mins 07/02/13: Joe Infranco on the Zeb Bell Show
  
• mp3 06:06 mins 07/02/13: Dale Schowengerdt on the Schilling Show
  
• mp3 08:13 mins 06/26/13: Dale Schowengerdt on the Schilling Show
  
• Heritage article
  
• Prop.8 timeline
  
• Nice article in USA today by Austin Nimocks
  
• link to mp3 discussing the SCOTUS rulings.
  
• Alan Sears video resource page
  
• ADF's Roundup page useful
  
• The Legal Circus That Killed Proposition 8 (7/22/13) A nice summary of the legal irregularities surrounding the prop.8 case.

Last Updated: 1/8/14

TAGS: california, marriage, mp3, nevada, prop.8, supreme court