a little hopeful, a little disgusted

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a little hopeful, a little disgusted

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Nov. 5th, 2008 at 1:42 AM

Okay, America. We voted for "change we can believe in". Hopefully that's more than a prom theme.

That's the first step. Now, what is this change we're believing in? And how are we going to make it happen? Affordable health care, first-class education, and fixing "this whole economy thing", yeah?

Hoo boy.

The disgust: California seems to have voted bigotry into the constitution. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm hoping that gets the old judicial smack-down from the US Supreme Court.

( Read 9 comments — Leave a comment )

ken_schneyer

Nov. 5th, 2008 03:38 pm (UTC)

The graphic is striking, but would've been more believable if you hadn't given all the white presidents white hair. I mean, really.

I agree that the California development is depressing, but I doubt that there's a federal constitutional or statutory argument that can be made. The wording of the new amendment is simply, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It merely makes explicit what has been the de facto law in most states for 200 years. The only constitutional challenge that I can see would be based on Equal Protection. But the discrimination in the amendment is gender-based, consequently subject only to "intermediate scrutiny." This means that if there is any direct relation between the amendment and any important state interest, the law stands.

It's true that Colorado's Amendment Two was defeated on Equal Protection grounds, but Amendment Two was worded very broadly and negated the power of the legislature to pass any nondiscrimination laws based on sexual orientation. There was no way such an overbroad law could pass Equal Protection scrutiny.

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kaolinfire

Nov. 6th, 2008 12:00 am (UTC)

> The graphic is striking, but would've been more believable if you hadn't given all the white presidents white hair. I mean, really.

Agreed. My only defense is I found it somewhere (unattached to creator) and had to share.

> It's true that Colorado's Amendment Two was defeated on Equal Protection grounds

Yeah, and I think that's my only basic hope. That or people will just learn to better allow each other equal rights (if not, perhaps, _basic_ rights) in time.

If California changed its civil partnerships to something along the lines of: "Civil partnerships allow all rights and benefits under marriage and can be read interchangeably with the same except for civil partnerships being between any two consenting adults." (and sure, there's loopholes in that, but at least the gist of it) ... then I might be temporarily satisfied, though the whole "separate but equal" argument has been slapped down in the past. (or maybe because the whole "separate but equal" argument has been slapped down in the past). Though admittedly that was also a broader issue, and inherently less equal.

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