Proposition 8 Overturned

Because I was busily preparing for a meeting of the diocese’s Committee on Canons yesterday afternoon, I had little time to explore or revel in the U.S. District Court decision invalidating California’s Proposition 8. Today, however, I have at least looked at the decision (you can do so here) and am pleased with what I see. Alas, the opinion is 138 pages long, so it may take me a while to get around to reading it all. The last few pages, however, are especially noteworthy. Here is a sample from page 135 (137 of the PDF file):

Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples. FF 76, 79-80; Romer, 517 US at 634 (“[L]aws of the kind now before us raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected.”). Because Proposition 8 disadvantages gays and lesbians without any rational justification, Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The court, I think, is right on the money. Thank God for the U.S. Constitution.