California
Editorial: California voters should protect same-sex marriage from U.S. Supreme Court assault
No one, regardless of sexual orientation, should be deprived of the ability to marry the person they love.
That might seem like a fundamental and bedrock idea, but for California and the nation, it’s relatively new. And, unfortunately, there is no assurance the U.S. Supreme Court will remain on board.
That’s why voters in California’s Nov. 5 election must pass Proposition 3, which would update the state Constitution to match the mores of the 21st century.
The growth in national public support and legal protections for gay marriage over the past quarter century has been monumental.
Just 24 years ago, 62% of state voters approved Proposition 22, which affirmed in state law that only marriage between a man and a woman would be valid or recognized in California.
That was upended in May 2008, when the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had a fundamental right under the state Constitution to marry.
But later that year, 52% of California voters supported an initiative, Proposition 8, that added a ban on same-sex marriage to the state Constitution.
That was overturned with U.S. Supreme Court rulings in 2013 and 2015 that cleared the way for gay marriage in California and established a federal constitutional right nationwide.
Regrettably, that might not be the final word. The narrow 5-4 ruling in 2015 could be in danger with the conservative shift of the high court. Of the five justices in the majority nine years ago, only two, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, remain on the court today.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who today is considered one of the more moderate members of the court, dissented in the 2015 ruling. And, in the court’s 2022 ruling overturning constitutional protections for abortion rights, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion arguing that gay rights should also be subject to state-by-state review.
Thus, there is no guarantee that gay-marriage protections would survive review of the current U.S. Supreme Court any better than abortion rights did. Once again, a key issue of personal liberty could be relegated to each state to decide.
Making matters worse, right now in California, the 2008 wording of Proposition 8, even though struck down by the courts, remains in the state Constitution. Proposition 3 would fix that, repealing Proposition 8 and recognizing the fundamental right to marry, regardless of race or sex.
Proposition 3 would ensure California’s Constitution keeps up with changing public sentiment. In 2000, 38% of likely voters surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California said they supported gay marriage. By last year that support had doubled, to 75%.
In polling this year for the Los Angeles Times, 71% of adults nationwide and 72% of Californians said that the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all states should be left intact.
There’s no guarantee that will happen. Californians should inoculate the state against a federal reversal of same-sex marriage rights by passing Proposition 3.
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