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Homosexual Activists Seek to Block Vote on California Marriage Amendment
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
By Randy Hall
(CNSNews.com) - Four organizations "dedicated to protecting the civil rights of gay and lesbian people" have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Californians from voting on an amendment to the California constitution that would define marriage as a one-man, one-woman union.
The suit, which was filed Friday on behalf of three voters and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality California, argues that "the rules for revising the California Constitution were not properly followed."
"For good reason, there's a strict process for making revisions to our Constitution, and it's more involved than simply collecting petition signatures," said Stephen Bomse, a lawyer in the suit, said in a news release.
The groups filing the lawsuit contend that the proposed amendment would change the state's constitution so profoundly that it would result in a "revision" of the constitution -- and according to state law, a revision cannot be accomplished by voter initiative alone.
Instead, the brief claims that an initiative is not enough to put the amendment on the ballot, since it must also be approved by two-thirds of the legislature.
The suit also alleges that petitions for the initiative, which were circulated prior to the ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, were misleading because they stated the amendment would not change existing law and would not have a financial impact on the state.
"That process is in place to safeguard our basic form of government, especially the most basic principle of equal protection of the laws," Bomse stated.
"Therefore, we are filing this suit to ask the California Supreme Court to enforce those rules and to require the proponents to follow the correct procedure if they wish to make this far-reaching change to our state constitution," he concluded.
Opponents of same-sex marriage reacted strongly to the filing on Monday, when the leader of one conservative group called the brief "a last-ditch effort to rob the people of their input in November."
That comment was made by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), who said the strategy was being used by the four groups because "the clock is ticking on California's brief honeymoon with same-sex marriage."
"Homosexual activists are doing everything in their power to make the court's May 15 verdict permanent," Perkins stated in an email newsletter.
"When liberals used the same argument to overturn the marriage protection amendment in Oregon last month, it failed," he noted. "The court of appeals upheld the amendment, sending a powerful message on the effectiveness of a constitutional amendment defining marriage."
As a result, Equality California is "fine-tuning the strategy" by suggesting that "if enacted [the ballot initiative] would eviscerate the principle of equal citizenship for gay and lesbian people and strip the courts of their authority to enforce basic constitutional guarantees."
Perkins translated the liberal groups' message to mean: "We recognize that the people of California oppose homosexual 'marriage,' and we'll use every possible loophole to circumvent the democratic process."
Also critical of the filing was Glen Lavy, senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, who stated that "Equality California and its allies are desperate to evade democracy."
"First, they used the courts to erase the votes of nearly 5 million Californians who voted to protect marriage" by passing Proposition 22 in 2000, Lavy said. "Now, they are trying to silence the people's voice forever."
"The voters deserve a chance to vote on this important issue, but our extremist opponents want to silence the voters," noted Ron Prentice, chairman of the ProtectMarriage.com coalition, which is sponsoring the amendment. "This will only energize public support for overturning the court's decision."
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified the amendment -- which says that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" -- on Monday after receiving 1,120,801 signatures calling for the initiative to be included on the ballot.
Nevertheless, because of the California Supreme Court's May 15 ruling, same-sex marriage ceremonies began across the state in mid-June despite the possibility that they might be negated by the results of the Nov. 4 general election.
"Unfortunately for same-sex proponents, judicial activism may be common in California's courts, but the nullification of ballot initiatives is not," the FRC's Perkins said. "Justices seldom intervene once an amendment has qualified for the ballot.
"Obviously, Equality California is more afraid of the people's verdict than the court's," he added.
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