Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned California's Prop 8 law today. Prop 8 was passed in the Golden State on November 2008 banning same-sex marriage. Supporters of Prop 8 contend that the law protects the traditional understanding of marriage. Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson teamed up with David Boies to fight Prop 8 and legalize gay marriage in the country. The two lawyers are best known for representing George W. Bush and Al Gore in the controversial 2000 presidential election. However, Judge Walker has yet to decide whether to implement his ruling now and allow GLBT people to marry in California or put it on hold until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals can review it. Both legal teams were ordered to submit their arguments for or against the implementation by Friday, August 6.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker was originally appointed by former Pres. Reagan but the Senate Judiciary Committee at that time stalled the nomination process over the "Gay Olympics Controversy". He was later re-nominated by former President George H. W. Bush in 1989 and confirmed to take the seat vacated by Spencer M. Williams.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vetoed his state legislature's approval of gay marriage two times, issued this statement in response to Judge Walker: “For the hundreds of thousands of Californians in gay and lesbian households who are managing their day-to-day lives, this decision affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves.”
The decision is now on appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a liberal reputation for its past decisions. After that it goes to the the US Supreme Court, which will definitely uphold Judge Walker's decision with Supreme Court Justice Kennedy as the tie-breaking vote. The US Supreme Court may even go further to abolish the gay marriage bans all over the United States of America. It will take at least a year for this happen.
The full legal court decision is here.
The court case is named "Perry v. Schwarzenegger". Kristin Perry sued Gov. Schwarzenegger for denying her & same-sex partner, Sandra Steir a marriage license.
According to an LA Times investigation, 687,000 California voters changed their minds to vote "Yes on Prop 8" six weeks before the November 2008 elections after being peppered with anti-gay ads. 500,000 of those voters were parents of children under 18 yrs old. Prop 8 passed by about 600,000 votes. The ads targeted parents to scare them that their kids will learn gay sex and learn to be gay at school. Examples of such ads are here and here.
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