California Attorney General Says Prop. 8 Unconstitutional

Amidst all the blogosphere controversy over bloated, obese homophobic Rick "Gays Can Change" Warren giving the inaugural invocation, a welcome diversion is California Attorney General Jerry Brown's filing of a brief arguing that the California Supreme Court should strike down Proposition 8, arguing that "the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification." Rather the more complex procedure involving the legislature need to have been used. Needless to say, the Christianist/Mormon crowd that believes that a simple majority can strip minority groups of legal rights will be none too pleased with Brown. But then, these folks only give lip service to honoring civil laws and constitutions anyways. Obviously, if the Christianist/Mormons prevail, no minority group will be safe from the tyranny of the majority. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times:

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California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate the voter-approved ban on gay marriage, declaring that "the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification."Brown's argument on Proposition 8, contained in an 111-page brief filed at the last possible moment before the court's deadline, surprised many legal experts. The attorney general has a legal duty to uphold the state's laws as long as there are reasonable grounds to do so.

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The California Constitution protects certain rights as "inalienable," Brown wrote. Those include a right to liberty and to privacy, which the courts have said includes a person's right to marry.The issue before the court "presents a conflict between the constitutional power of the voters to amend the Constitution, on the one hand, and the Constitution's Declaration of Rights, on the other," Brown wrote. The issue "is whether rights secured under the state Constitution's safeguard of liberty as an 'inalienable' right may intentionally be withdrawn from a class of persons by an initiative amendment."

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Goodwin Liu, associate dean and professor of law at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, said it was "extraordinary for the chief law enforcement officer of the state to decline to enforce a law -- even on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.""The chief law enforcement officer of the state is charged with enforcing laws, even laws with which he disagrees," Liu said.