Thoughts in a Haystack

Not very well known is that the opponents of marriage equality in California have been fighting a rather quixotic rear guard action in the wake of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Supreme Court's refusal to allow the Proposition 8 proponents to defend it once the state refused to continue to do so.

The Prop 8 proponents, joined briefly by the San Diego County Clerk, argued before the California Supreme Court that the ruling of Federal District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker, that the proposition violated the US Constitution, applied only to the two plaintiffs in that case and/or applied only to the two counties that were sued by those plaintiffs, Alameda (San Francisco) and Los Angeles counties. Specifically, they argued that state officials, such as the governor, attorney general, or license registrar could not order, as they have done, the other 56 county clerks to carry out the Walker order. Therefore, they argued, Prop 8 is still the law in most of the state.

In no great surprise, the California Supreme Court has rejected the argument which would have resulted in a procedural nightmare for the state. The state court was terse: "The petition for a writ of mandate is denied."

Which does not mean that the anti-equality people are done. They are, after all, the descendants of those who have fought every advance in human freedom from the very day Constantine transformed them from the oppressed into the oppressors.